ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A special edition of Natsuo Kirino’s award-winning, tension-filled literary mystery Out. Featuring an introduction by James Ellroy. This mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot’s ringleader but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society. At once a masterpiece of literary suspense and pitch-black comedy of gender warfare, Out is also a moving evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds, and the friendships that bolster them in the aftermath. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Special Edition
Nacuo Kirino Book order
Natsuo Kirino is celebrated for her astute observations of Japanese society in the aftermath of its economic bubble collapse. Her works are highly acclaimed for their intriguingly intelligent plot development and compelling character portrayals. Kirino delves into the darker aspects of human psychology and societal structures, offering readers a distinctive and often unsettling experience. Her unique voice and perspective have established her as a significant contemporary Japanese author.







- 2022
- 2020
The Complete Guide to Drawing Dynamic Manga Sword Fighters
- 168 pages
- 6 hours of reading
The legendary Samurai, and the sharp-edged katanas they mastered, are the point of this thrill-seeking guide to drawing swordfights, battle scenes and skirmishes. The Complete Guide to Drawing Dynamic Manga Sword Fighters provides a highly detailed series of lessons, starting with the body, the fighter's stance and the various ways your characters can be twisted, torqued and turned into powerful poses. No detail is overlooked--from the grip on the weapon to the intense look on your character's face. Also included is an entire chapter devoted to the various razor-sharp weapons your characters can come armed with. This invaluable manga drawing guide then concludes with a gallery of full-color scenes, poses and anime stills showing important, aspirational details: captivating scenes, compelling characters and powerful weapons at the ready. With this book, intermediate artists can refine their style and add intensity, authenticity and drama to their stories. Enjoy as your characters slash, fence and fight their way through your own custom-designed action manga.
- 2012
The Goddess Chronicle
- 320 pages
- 12 hours of reading
On an island the shape of a tear drop live two sisters. One is the Oracle, the other is damned. One is admired far and wide. The other must sacrifice her life to fulfil her destiny. But what will happen when she returns to the island for revenge?
- 2008
Life at the prestigious Q High School for Girls in Tokyo exists on a precise social axis: a world of insiders and outsiders, of haves and have-nots. Beautiful Yuriko and her unpopular, unnamed sister exist in different spheres; the hopelessly awkward Kazue Sato floats around among them, trying to fit in.Years later, Yuriko and Kazue are dead — both have become prostitutes and both have been brutally murdered. Natsuo Kirino, celebrated author of Out, seamlessly weaves together the stories of these women’s struggles within the conventions and restrictions of Japanese society. At once a psychological investigation of the pressures facing Japanese women and a classic work of noir fiction, Grotesque is a brilliantly twisted novel of ambition, desire, beauty, cruelty, and identity by one of our most electrifying writers.
- 2008
Real World
- 224 pages
- 8 hours of reading
In a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls drift through a hot smoggy August and tedious summer school classes. There's dependable Toshi; brainy Terauchi; Yuzan, grief-stricken and confused; and Kirarin, whose late nights and reckless behaviour remain a secret from those around her. Then Toshi's next-door neighbour is found brutally murdered and the girls suspect Worm, the neighbour's son and a high school misfit. But when he disappears (taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him) the four girls become irresistibly drawn into a treacherous vortex of brutality and seduction which rises from within themselves as well as the world around them.
- 2007
Grotesque
- 480 pages
- 17 hours of reading
Two prostitutes are murdered in Tokyo. Twenty years previously both women were educated at the same elite school for young ladies, and had seemingly promising futures ahead of them. But in a world of dark desire and vicious ambition, for both women, prostitution meant power. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting thriller, a chilling exploration of women's secret lives in modern day Japan.
- 2006
In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Burdened with chores and heavy debts and isolated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband then confesses her crime to Masako, the closest of her colleagues. For reasons of her own, Masako agrees to assist her friend and seeks the help of the other co-workers to dismember and dispose of the body. The body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions, but the women have far more dangerous enemies -a yakuza connected loan shark who discovers their secret and has a business proposition, and a ruthless nightclub owner the police are convinced is guilty of the murder. He has lost everything as a result of their crime and he is out for revenge. OUT is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable.
- 2004
Out
- 528 pages
- 19 hours of reading
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions. In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the graveyard shift at a factory. Burdened with heavy debts, alienated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband. She confesses her crime to her colleagues and unexpectedly, they agree to help. But then the dismembered body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions and more dangerous enemies begin to close in. OUT is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable.
