Product Description

Rin is twenty-two, with a troubled adolescence behind her. She is flying back from her honeymoon, madly in love with her husband, Shin, and the future looks rosy. Then Shin disappears to the bathroom while he thinks Rin is sleeping and she starts to imagine that he has gone to seduce the flight attendant. As her thoughts spiral out of control the phrase 'madly in love' takes on a more sinister meaning. Prizewinning author Hitomi Kanehara's sensational new novel, "Autofiction", follows Rin's life backwards through time from this moment so that we see her when she is eighteen, sixteen and finally fifteen, and a picture of the dark heart and violent past of this disturbed young woman gradually develops.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92892 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Metro
'shakes up Western impressions of Japan's fast-changing society'

The Independent
'...autiofiction is the most elegant postmodern escape act by a contemporary novelist yet'

About the Author
Hitomi Kanehara is a young Japanese writer who left school at the age of eleven. After leaving home as a teenager, she emailed her stories to her writer father who helped her edit them. Her previous novel, Snakes and Earrings won the top Japanese literary award, the Akutagawa Prize. One of the judges, celebrated writer Ryu Murakami, said her book was 'easily the top choice, receiving the highest marks of any work since I became a member of the selection panel'.

Customer Reviews

Paranoid perfection
To me the whole novel is one big ramble... However this has got to be the most well written and powerful ramble I've ever read! The novel travels back in time through four points in the central character Rin's life starting with her 22nd winter where she copes (I'll use the word loosely) with married life and the success of being a writer. The next three 'parts' of the novel go back to her 18th summer, 16th summer and finally her 15th winter each giving a glimpse into her increasingly damaged psyche and disturbed past.

Defiantly a recommended book and not just for fans of Hitomi Kanehara. Five stars all the way.

of some interest....but not great by any means
Yes, it's an "interesting" read but no, I'm afraid that ultimately it's a little silly despite starting off well.
I DO like the fact though that I'm still wondering if this is the tale of the central character "Rin", a tale written by her (the character is asked to write a piece of fiction in an autobiographical style in one chapter ), or a tale of the actual author (or even perhaps an "auto-fiction" about the author). Interesting idea.

sweet
the girl is so paranoid, it's scary.
but it was a really enjoyable book.
about twice as long as her other book S&E
but still pretty short.