A Novel
by Kotaro Isaka
A gripping novel mixing mythology, family drama, espionage, and high technology from the international bestselling author of Bullet Train, already in development for a major film starring Anne Hathaway and Salma Hayek.
In Seesaw Monster, international bestselling author Kotaro Isaka employs his hallmarks of kinetic pacing, high-stakes action, and great characters to explore the nature of conflict, the power of close relationships, and the idea of progress.
Poor Naoto. A pharmaceutical salesman in Japan in the booming 1980s, his job has him working long hours, answering to his demanding boss and entertaining entitled customers. And at home, his wife, Miyako, and his mother are always feuding, making each other miserable. Why can't the two just get along?
Then one day a mysterious visitor shows up at their door with a possible answer. Their conflict is larger—and far more ancient—than it might appear. When Naoto uncovers something wrong at work and his life is suddenly in danger, can the two women set aside their differences to save him?
Decades later, in our near-future, surveillance, facial-recognition software, and AI dominate Japan. The most sensitive information lives only on paper, and Mito makes his living delivering it. When a chance meeting with a stranger on a train draws Mito into a possible conspiracy, he finds himself face-to-face with his own enemy, a tragic double whose life has been intertwined with his own. Is this another instance of the ancient feud? And what role will Miyako, now in her nineties, play in this deadly game?
"Isaka's exceptional latest combines the author's flair for violent comic farce with an unsettling look at the near future...This ranks among the author's best." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[E]njoyable and startlingly original...Fans of Haruki Murakami and William Gibson will love this wild, exuberant novel that combines mythology, family drama, espionage, and technology and already has a film adaptation in the works (starring Anne Hathaway and Salma Hayek). It's fun all the way through." —Library Journal
This information about Seesaw Monster was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kotaro Isaka is a bestselling and multi-award-winning writer whose books have sold millions of copies around the world. He has won the Shincho Mystery Club Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan Booksellers' Award, and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize. His novel Bullet Train was made into a major film from Sony starring Brad Pitt.
The Original
by Nell Stevens
In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.
Angelica
by Molly Beer
A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's influential sister-in-law.
The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
by Liza Tully
A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.