Tokyo (novel)

Tokyo is a 2004 novel by British crime writer Mo Hayder. It was short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award, as well as several others. (For the US market, the title was changed to "The Devil of Nanking," which had been Hayder's working-title for the book.) Tokyo was reviewed by the internationally read UK newspaper, the Guardian[1] as well as by Kirkus Reviews under its US title.[2]

Tokyo
AuthorMo Hayder
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreThriller novel
PublisherBantam Press
Publication date
4 May 2004
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages409 pp
ISBN0-593-04969-1
OCLC56476730
823.914 22
LC ClassPR6058.A9776 T65 2004
Preceded byThe Treatment 
Followed byPig Island 

Plot introduction

The story is about a young woman (nicknamed 'Grey' by a fellow mental hospital patient) who is obsessed with the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking, also known as the Rape of Nanking. She travels to Japan in order to find a professor said to have rare footage of the massacre detailing an event that she could not otherwise prove occurred. The professor decides that he will only show her the tape if she was to procure an unknown ingredient of Chinese medicine from the local Yakuza group. After being recruited into a host club, Grey finds her chance.

Major themes

The book deals with the evils of ignorance, Grey being a home-schooled child whose mother heavily censored everything she came into contact with, the politics of modern-day Yakuza, and the glitzy underground night-life of Tokyo, as well as the build-up and reality of the massacre of Nanking and the effect it still has today.

gollark: My house is made of very, very angry bees duct-taped together.
gollark: You cannot.
gollark: Great! I'll start making Macron shortly.
gollark: Macron is just Lisp with weird syntax, and traits somehow, right?
gollark: I really ought to implement Macron next round.

References
  1. Review: Tokyo by Mo Hayder | Books. The Guardian (2004-05-08). Retrieved on 2014-06-04.
  2. Hayder, Mo. (2005-04-01) THE DEVIL OF NANKING by Mo Hayder | Kirkus. Kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-04.
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