The Gun

end in sight. No matter how often I think about it, I can t seem to attach any specific meaning to my actions at that time. But then, it really wasn t all that unusual for me. On rare occasions, I would let things happen that were I don t know the opposite of what I wanted to do. Soaking wet and still nursing my melancholy thoughts, I kept walking.
    Despite all this, I still take pleasure in the choice I made that night. I hardly ever used to evaluate my own past actions. I really didn t make a habit of thinking too hard about right and wrong, or about the consequences that arose from either. But I feel something akin to gratitude for what I did that night. Had I simply gone back to my apartment, I wouldn t have the gun in my hands now. In contrast, when I think about the possibility of never having had the gun, I am seized with a vague terror. Maybe it s wrong to think that, since it wasn t mine to begin with.
    The next thing I did was buy a can of coffee from a vending machine. I wasn t thirsty, but I often drink coffee while I m walking, so I bought it out of habit, more or less. I flipped the tab and took a sip as I stepped carefully to avoid the puddles that had formed on the asphalt. The sky was overcast with heavy gray clouds neither the moon nor the stars were visible. There was a chill in the air the rain had banished any trace of warmth from earlier in the day.
    I continued to wander. Literally wandering; like I said before, I had no destination. I drank the canned coffee as I listened to the sound of the rain, and after I finished the coffee, I lit a cigarette. I passed through another warren of streets lined on either side with residences, and emerged onto a wide avenue. Cars sped along right beside me, sending up spray, not a single one slowing down as it pas

as unsettling ruminations on the human psyche and its predilection for darkness."
The Straits Times (Singapore)

"One of the jewels in the Japanese crime-fiction crown, [Nakamura's] debut novel features a nihilistic anti-hero filled with terrible rage."
South China Morning Post

"An unforgettable, heart-pounding journey into the world of psychological suspense."
Crimespree Magazine

"The psychological downward spiral into obsession is what drives this book, and during my reading, I couldn t help but think that Alfred Hitchcock could have created a brilliant film adaptation."
Bruce Tierney, BookPage

"An intense, claustrophobic, and effective noir/philosophical thriller."
International Noir Fiction

"Utterly brilliant."
CounterPunch

"Another masterwork from one of the best modern practitioners of the crime novel."
World Literature Today

"Nakamura does obsessive and delusional very well . . . A fine first effort by a talented writer."
The Complete Review

"Chilling."
Reading Matters

"No crime author out there is currently doing what Fuminori Nakamura is doing. I ve read every novel of his Soho Press has translated and they ve all been unique in their subject matter and tone and exactly the same in terms of effectiveness and the wonderfully bizarre, oblique way in which Nakamura approaches the genre."
Gabino Iglesias, Dead End Follies

"[An] intense work of suspense and increasing madness."
Kingdom Books

"An incredibly tense story about how obsession can mold your actions and how an inanimate object can become animate in the 'right' pair of hands."
Old Firehouse Books, Ft. Collins, Colorado

"The author does more in less than 200 pages than most authors could pull off in 600 . . . Stripped down, focused, intense, and worth every second you spend reading."
Bookgasm

"Suspenseful to the last page, Nakamura s existential noir translates well to America, [and is] a timely allegory for our gun-crazed culture."
Library Journal

"This portrait of obsession and madness starts slowly but soon exerts an almost hypnotic pull as we contemplate both the extent of Nishikawa s alienation and the primal allure of these little machines for killing."
Booklist

"Drenched literally in noir atmosphere . . . Almost a thesis on the seductive potential of handguns."
Kirkus Reviews

"[Nakamura] paints the story in short strokes, capturing nuance in simple, short sentences, somehow squeezing out the personal in cold prose. His story is small in the sense that it is only one person s strange world we see; yet universal in the way it characterizes how we might be led into it."
Ronald Tierney

Praise for Fuminori Nakamura

Japan Objects' Best Japanese Authors of All Time

"This slim, icy, outstanding thriller, reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Patricia Highsmith, should establish Fuminori Nakamura as one of the most interesting Japanese crime novelists at work today."
USA Today

"The Thief brings to mind Highsmith, Mishima and Dostoevsky . . . A chilling existential thriller leaving readers in doubt without making them feel in any way cheated."
The Wall Street Journal, Best Book of the Year Selection

"Deliciously twisted . . . Nakamura bend[s] the line between what is good and what is evil until it nearly breaks. It's impressive how a book so dark can be so much fun."
Grantland

"His grasp of the seamy underbelly of the city is why Nakamura is one of the most award-winning young guns of Japanese hardboiled detective writing."
Daily Beast

"Nakamura's prose is cut-to-the-bone lean, but it moves across the page with a seductive, even voluptuous agility."
Richmond Times-Dispatch