People Who Eat Darkness
Love, Grief and a Journey into Japan’s Shadows
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:2nd Feb '12
Should be back in stock very soon
A deeply compelling and chilling journey into the dark side of Japan, centred on the tragic case of Lucie Blackman.
In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman - tall, blonde, and twenty-one years old - had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult?
*** Richard Lloyd Parry is the Winner of the 2018 Rathbones Folio Prize ***
In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman - tall, blonde, and twenty-one years old - had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a desolate seaside cave.
Her disappearance was mystifying. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? What did her work, as a 'hostess' in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo, really involve? And could Lucie's fate be linked to the disappearance of another girl some ten years earlier?
Over the course of a decade, Richard Lloyd Parry has travelled to four continents to interview those caught up in the story and been given unprecedented access to Lucie's bitterly divided family to reveal the astonishing truth about Lucie and her fate.
An extraordinary, compulsive and brilliant book...very, very moving -- David Peace
Difficult to put down... impossible to forget -- Minette Walters
A skilful, definitive history of one of the most notorious crimes of the past decade * Sunday Times *
This is In Cold Blood for our times... Everyone who has ever loved someone and held that life dear should read this stunning book, and shiver -- Chris Cleave
Open-minded and sympathetic, despite being driven half mad by the case, Parry, former Asia correspondent for the Independent and The Times, is the best kind of narrator of a tale that isn't just a murder case but a book that sheds light on Japan, on families, on the media, and on the insidious effects of misogyny -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *
This is an extraordinary book which stands as far above the 'true crime' label as Paradise Lost does above the category 'verse'... No avenue is left unexplored, no thought is too oblique to be uttered, no psychological puzzle too disturbing to be investigated -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *
A skilful, definitive history of one of the most notorious crimes of the past decade * Sunday Times *
Richard Lloyd Parry has produced a work not only of page-turning intensity but also of touching sensitivity and deep insight. That he could have created something almost noble from such base material is a minor miracle of literary alchemy. The book is brilliantly written -- David Pilling * Financial Times *
An extraordinary book, passionately and meticulously told... I read it with my breath held and found I couldn't relax, think or get on with my life until I'd finished it -- Julie Myerson
Parry shows a rare compassion and a refusal to judge -- Jonathan Coe * Guardian, Books of the Year *
- Short-listed for Gordon Burn Prize 2013 (UK)
ISBN: 9780099502555
Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 32mm
Weight: 354g
416 pages