*THE JAPANESE CRIME CLASSIC - ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD* 'One of the great masterpieces of
Japanese crime fiction and one of the must-read books of this or any year' David Peace Tokyo
1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common
except a deep disaffection with their lives but together they represent the social struggles
and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder a demoted
detective with a chip on his shoulder a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for
his ethnicity a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man
bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson who died in
suspicious circumstances. Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths
more than human life the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of
Japan's largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company's corrupt
financiers. Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by the Monster with
21 Faces Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication acknowledged
as the magnum opus by one of Japan's literary masters. 'A novel that portrays with devastating
immensity how those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own
hearts' Yoko Ogawa author of The Memory Police 'Takamura's prismatic heist novel offers a
broad indictment of capitalist society' New York Times 'Lady Joker is a work you get immersed
in like a sprawling 19th century novel or a TV series like The Wire' NPR
