'The best book I've read this year ... darkly comedic and full of tension and surprise' Marina Abramovic
'Life for sale. Use me as you wish. I am a twenty-seven-year-old male. Discretion guaranteed. Will cause no bother at all.'
When Hanio Yamada realises the future holds little of worth to him, he puts his life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper, thus unleashing a series of unimaginable exploits. A world of murderous mobsters, hidden cameras, a vampire woman, poisoned carrots, code-breaking, a hopeless junkie heiress and makeshift explosives reveals itself to the unwitting hero. Is there nothing he can do to stop it? Resolving to follow the orders of his would-be purchasers, he comes to understand what life is worth, and whether we can indeed name our price.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241333150
Number of pages: 192
Weight: 146 g
Dimensions: 197 x 128 x 11 mm
Yields a rare glimpse of the pulp-fiction flipside that partnered the rhapsodic and mystical Mishima... grotesque, melodramatic, spectacular, utterly silly - The Times
It's funny and horrific and curious and thoroughly entertaining and should win Mishima a new generation of fans - The Independent
There is a place in life for the exhilarating, surreal and sometimes downright silly. This novel ticks all the boxes - Spectator
Succeeds in capturing vividly the bathos of the self-pitying modern nihilist... the absurdity of life is conveyed through the tropes of pulp fiction and manga comics - The New Statesman
An engaging all-action satire - The Guardian
A writer of immense energy and ability - Time Out
I've only recently started reading Japanese fiction and this is the first Yukio Mishima book. Beautifully written, clever and very enjoyable. Never researched any author's life before but this book is in... More
Possibly one of the most vivid reads, Life for Sale will keep you reading until the very end.
Amazingly interesting, beautifully written; a story sure to be considered a modern masterpiece
Failed suicide?
Cockroaches?
Gangsters?
Vampires?
Syphilis?
Spies?
Secret organizations?
LSD?
I'm sold.
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