The Thief
move over Ryu Murakami, a new bleak voice from the streets has risen!"The Thief", as the GR description goes, "oozes with existential dread," and this hard-boiled masterpiece demonstrates once again why Japan's dark side and not its over-privileged rich are the soil for the higher forms of literary art. 'Thief,' or "pickpocket" in its original form, concerns a professional pickpocket who is drawn deeper and deeper into the power hierarchy of crime and politics. 5/5 masterpiece