posted on 16 Jun 2024

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

I think the rise and rise in popularity of young Japanese authors in translation has been one of the most remarkable features of the literary landscape here in the UK over recent years. It’s probably fair to say that this door was originally pushed open by Haruki Murakami but the new generation seem to owe less and less to his legacy – with one possible exception. They are, in my experience, like Murakami, all excitingly daring and unafraid to shock or amaze.

Kotaro Isaka is most certainly a name to watch. Bullet Train (which has also been rather ham-fistedly made into a film) was his breakthrough novel in translation but it is, in fact, the second book in what is known as the Hitman trilogy - the first of which, 3 Assassins has now also been released in the UK. Bullet Train has all those features of daring, shock and dark brooding humour that have made the new wave of young Japanese writers so alluring.

This is a really hard book to review without filling the page with spoilers, so I won’t be going into detail. What I can do though is to give you an outline of what’s going on. A good place to start is to think of this as a high octane, closed-room thriller – the ‘room’ in this case is the bullet train – the Tōhoku Shinkansen – leaving from Tokyo and heading for Morioka. First to board the train is Yuichi Kimura, a former hitman, now an alcoholic, who is there to seek revenge on a second passenger who happens to be a 13 year-old psychopath known as The Prince who Kimura knows has critically injured his young son.

Next, we meet two more gangsters with the code names Tangerine and Lemon who are supposed to be escorting home the older son of a gang leader called Minegishi along with a suitcase full of money. These two are ruthless, mismatched, almost comically incompetent but darkly scary.

Also boarding the train is Nanao, known as The Ladybug, who is also an underworld operative but who is the self-confessed most unlucky hitman in Japan. He’s obsessed with the fact that everything he gets involved in goes wrong and by the time we reach the first train stop he’s already accidently killed another hitman known as The Wolf. He’s there to steal to order the suitcase full of money being carried by Lemon and Tangerine.

All this is sealed into the train and plays out like an astonishing black farce and the further along the track we go the higher the body count goes as we get plenty of back story to what’s going on. And, just to tempt you further, these may not be the only hitmen and women on the train. Watch out too for an escaped snake and the sudden appearance of Kimura’s parents who turn out to be something more than you might expect.

There’s no doubt that death, double-dealing and dark farce are all there in spades but, in my view, it’s the chilling nature of The Prince that will cut through as you read it. You’ll also find yourself rather surprised to be identifying or sympathising with one or more of these unsavoury characters and cheering them on as they dodge death (or don’t).

Available in paperback and second hand copies are easily available and well under £5.

 

Terry Potter

June 2024