Cannibals - BookWyrm

Paperback, 88 pages

English language

Published March 29, 2024 by Honford Star.

ISBN:: 978-1-915829-09-2

(1 review)

During the hot, dry summer of 1988, in a forgotten neighborhood known as the riverside, seventeen-year-old Shinogaki Toma is entangled in a desperate struggle against what he believes to be his fate to become his sadistic father. Consumed by a fear that he will harm his girlfriend, Toma’s downward spiral into depression and instability becomes increasingly intense. Toma’s mother left his father long ago and now lives nearby as a fishmonger. Using the hook that replaced the hand she lost during wartime bombings, she guts the eels Toma catches in the sewage-filled river for his father to eat. Things come to a head when Kotoko, his father’s live in girlfriend, becomes pregnant and makes the decision to leave the riverside for a better life.

Translated from Japanese by Kalau Almony, Tanaka Shinya’s Akutagawa Prize-winning masterpiece, Cannibals, sold over 200,000 copies in Japan and was adapted into a movie by Cannes …

During the hot, dry summer of 1988, in a forgotten neighborhood known as the riverside, seventeen-year-old Shinogaki Toma is entangled in a desperate struggle against what he believes to be his fate to become his sadistic father. Consumed by a fear that he will harm his girlfriend, Toma’s downward spiral into depression and instability becomes increasingly intense. Toma’s mother left his father long ago and now lives nearby as a fishmonger. Using the hook that replaced the hand she lost during wartime bombings, she guts the eels Toma catches in the sewage-filled river for his father to eat. Things come to a head when Kotoko, his father’s live in girlfriend, becomes pregnant and makes the decision to leave the riverside for a better life.

Translated from Japanese by Kalau Almony, Tanaka Shinya’s Akutagawa Prize-winning masterpiece, Cannibals, sold over 200,000 copies in Japan and was adapted into a movie by Cannes Film Festival-winner Shinji Aoyama.

1 edition

Taylor Drew reviewed Cannibals by Kalau Almony

Just too creepy

2 stars

I can respect that there's a point to this book existing, but I really didn't like it at all. I spend enough of my life having to accommodate for men who think they're owed something by women to want to read something like this.

Even though the main character is a teenage boy, I still found the whole approach on sex(ual assault) and domestic violence to be somewhat too shallow for my tastes--I really wanted more introspection than I got. Anyone triggered by those things definitely needs to avoid this book.

I probably wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been less than 100 pages long and easily read while I was waiting for videos to render.