Secret Rendezvous

Description

A Kafaesque marvel and a biting satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life In Tokyo, in the middle of the night, an uncalled-for ambulance arrives to spirit away a man's wife, though she is perfectly healthy. He sets out on an epic journey to find her, around the labyrinthine corners of a strange and enormous hospital. Days into his search, having encountered countless strange characters, odd sexual experiments and the unmistakable feeling of being watched, he is suddenly appointed to be the hospital's chief of security, and his new boss is convinced that he is a horse. Throughout it all, he will never stop searching for his wife.

Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. Before his death in 1993, Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been bestsellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man and The Ruined Map.

A disconcertingly funny book . . . both original and edgily entertaining * The New York Times Book Review * Vivid and spooky * Kirkus Reviews * Original and edgily entertaining. It confirms Abe as the best Japanese novelist (along with Shusaku Endo) since the deaths of Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata. * The New York Times *