In perfecting his anonymous skills, the thief has become separated from most human connections. Nevertheless, it is clear that the thief lives for the moment of ecstasy he experiences when lifting a wallet from a stranger. In fact, sometimes even the thief himself has no memory of where and how he stole a particular object. When he has selected his target, he moves so smoothly and with so little outward display that the moment of the actual theft is nigh undetectable. Disappearing into a crowd, he has a preternatural ability to determine which person is the wealthiest, and thus least morally objectionable to rob. The thief has spent his life perfecting the art of picking pockets and stealing wallets. The novel is narrated by the thief, whose name we never find out, although late in the novel it is hinted that his “real” name may at some point have been Nishimura.

Heavily atmospheric, filled with existential dread and ambiguously symbolic imagery, the crime drama centers on an unnamed protagonist whose easy existence as an extremely gifted pickpocket is threatened when he is caught up in the machinations of a diabolical crime boss who thinks of himself as the master of fate. Two years later, this noir thriller was translated into English by a team of translators, Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates.

Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura was propelled into the literary limelight with his novel The Thief, which was awarded Japan’s most illustrious award, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize in 2010.

The Thief by Tim Chaffey