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The Thief

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 684 ratings · 166 reviews

A literary crime masterpiece that follows a Japanese pickpocket lost to the machinations of fate. Bleak and oozing existential dread, The Thief is simply unforgettable.

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most peo...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published March 20th 2012 by Soho Crime (first published 2009)

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Community Reviews

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May 03, 2013 Gloria Feit rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is an interesting idea in need of fulfillment. Somehow, it leaves the reader somewhat confused. It recounts the development of a pickpocket who generally only removes wallets from rich people. Along the way, the author philosophizes about the “profession” of picking pockets, including a little history of some of the more famous practioners of the art.

The thief himself tells the story in the first person. However, for all he has to say about his work and life, we learn very little abou...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is unique because it is told by someone I would naturally dislike. It mentions briefly how he got started stealing; that he almost relished the humiliation. At first, his conscience made him dissatisfied with his stolen object. As he became more addicted with this asocial habit, it satisfied him less and less. He definitely didn't do it for the money. He realized that his lifestyle was totally alienating from any community bonds. Unlike his girlfriend, he was still clinging to the idea...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-or-evil

Stark, spare,noir. Could not put it down. From Amazon reviews:

In Fuminori Nakamura's new novel, the main character weaves along the streets of Tokyo pickpocketing his way through the flow of humanity, as if in a dream. He lifts wallets filled with cash and credit cards with a masterful ease, his mind occupied with a trance-like debate about whether to care anymore. Whether to care about the young kid he sees clumsily stealing food at a supermarket. Whether to care about his partner, who disappe...more

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Jun 29, 2012 The Commuting Bookworm rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

The thief is a seasoned pickpocket, who is questioning his lifestyle, his choices and the consequences of his actions. It is written in the first person narrative all the way through and therefore is easy to follow and read.

At 210 pages this is a small book with a mighty emotional punch. Nakamura slowly builds the readers attachment to the narrator, who although perhaps is behaving against acceptable normalities and living in a way that many of us would find disgra...more

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May 22, 2012 Tony rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, translated-fiction

Despite being regularly underwhelmed by Japanese crime fiction, I continue to pick it up in the hopes of finding a writer or story that clicks. Unfortunately, this book proved to be another dud. The story follows a highly talented pickpocket who meets up with an old friend/criminal and gets sucked into a scheme masterminded by a mysterious man. He is made the proverbial offer he can't refuse -- a series of increasingly difficult thefts that he must complete or he will be killed. This could theor...more

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May 13, 2012 Vegantrav rated it 5 of 5 stars

The title character, the thief, is a highly skilled pickpocket who is commissioned, against his will, to carry out three jobs--all of which involve some very delicate picking of pockets, much more complicated than merely lifting wallets--for a crime boss, Kizaki.

If the thief fails, Kizaki will kill him, and the thief has no doubt that Kizaki will follow through.

Kizaki likes to rhapsodize about fate. Is the thief's fate controlled by Kizaki, or is it that the thief is fated to be controlled by Ki...more The title character, the thief, is a highly skilled pickpocket who is commissioned, against his will, to carry out three jobs--all of which involve some very delicate picking of pockets, much more complicated than merely lifting wallets--for a crime boss, Kizaki.

If the thief fails, Kizaki will kill him, and the thief has no doubt that Kizaki will follow through.

Kizaki likes to rhapsodize about fate. Is the thief's fate controlled by Kizaki, or is it that the thief is fated to be controlled by Kizaki?

This book is more than just a great crime thriller: it's an interesting meditation on fate and free will.

Was I fated to read this book when I saw it on the library shelves, or could I have seen it and somehow chosen not to check it out? Did my genes, my environment, and all the choices--or seeming choices--that I had made in my life up to the point that I saw this book on the shelf determine that I would check out this book? Did fate decree that I should read this book about fate? Or was it merely an unfated accident of spying this book at the right time without any other distractions which thus allowed me the opportunity to pick up this book and choose to check it out and read it or choose to ignore it? If the events immediately preceding my checking out this book could be replayed over and over up to the moment when I decided to check out this book, would I, each and every time, choose to check out this book, or would there be occasions when I would put it back on the shelf, and if I would sometimes choose differently, what would be the reasons that I chose differently?

Was I fated to type thee very words, or could I, after finishing this book, have chosen not to write this review at all? What is controlling these choices that I seem to make: is it the unseen, deterministic hand of fate, or am I somehow in control of my own choices? Or could it be both?

The Thief provides no answers to these questions; it simply raises the questions. I would like to think that I am in control of my choices, but how could I ever really know for sure? Perhaps we are all fated to think that we are free. (less)

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May 08, 2012 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars

One star? Three stars? Five stars? I have no clue, and that about sums up my experience with this book. I landed on three because the book was intruiging and thought-provoking, but I just couldn't connect with it.

Maybe my expectations were too high because of the book's awards, too high because they were inaccurately based on an Americanized version of what "thriller" usually means, or because I read it too fast and should have savored it instead. The book didn't demand that the reader stop and...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Mysterytribune rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-tribune-must-reads

In the case you have not read any Japanese crime fiction or thriller so far, we suggest you take a look at "The Thief" by Fuminori Nakamura. Born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. He won the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for New Writers for his first novel, A Gun in 2002 and in 2005 he won the Akutagawa prize for The Boy in the Earth. The Thief, winner of the 2010 Oe Prize, Japan’s most important literary award, is his first novel to published in English.

A Brief Summary:...more In the case you have not read any Japanese crime fiction or thriller so far, we suggest you take a look at "The Thief" by Fuminori Nakamura. Born in 1977 and graduated from Fukushima University in 2000. He won the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for New Writers for his first novel, A Gun in 2002 and in 2005 he won the Akutagawa prize for The Boy in the Earth. The Thief, winner of the 2010 Oe Prize, Japan’s most important literary award, is his first novel to published in English.

A Brief Summary:

This novel tells the story of "The Thief", a seasoned pickpocket, who puts himself into such a big hole he finds it very difficult to get out. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch.

Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends and no connections.

But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It’s an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.

Our Take:

This book is the Japanese version of noir thriller about Nishimura, the pickpocket, who get mixed up with wrong people in the underworld of Tokyo. We really liked this character and believe it's probably the most richly developed and interesting aspect of this story. The Thief is a complicated and tough man but at the same time very soft and maybe vulnerable in respect to children. He lives on easy money and gives away the money easily as well: We see occasional examples of the Robin Hood sort of behavior in the story and this reflects the continuous struggle within him between good and evil forces.

The criminal characters in the story are also interesting in the sense that they are very philosophical in the remarks they make. In some part of the book, The mastermind, discusses the importance of balance and the need to feel sympathy for a victim while torturing her.

The plot is very straightforward and by no means something new; however the author has used it cleverly and reveals a lot about Japan's culture and personality. Overall, a great and worthy addition to any crime fiction fan's bookshelf.

Our Rating: 4.0

There is more at http://www.mysterytribune.com or @mysterytribune(less)

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Apr 29, 2013 Ryandake rated it 3 of 5 stars

a pretty interesting book with some great pickpocketing techniques.

i have quite a fondness for offbeat Japanese litrachaa, and this one certainly fits the bill. our hero, a Tokyo pickpocket, is leading a quietly larcenous life when he suddenly attracts the unwelcome attentions of an evil philosopher and a needy young boy. neither particularly evil nor particularly paternal, our hero suddenly has to worm his way out of some major trouble from the former and the persistent pesterings of the latter...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Ben Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fuminori Nakamura’s The Thief at the heart is a wonderfully-crafted piece of work, steeped in philosophy and darkness. Translated from Japanese for the first time, we follow the journey of the Thief; a pickpocket who roams the streets, relishing the thudding anticipation of the steal as he snatches wallets and watches seemingly at will. A psychological thriller, Nakamura takes us on a fascinating exploration of the criminal underworld, while offering mediation on human nature and fate.

This is no...more
Fuminori Nakamura’s The Thief at the heart is a wonderfully-crafted piece of work, steeped in philosophy and darkness. Translated from Japanese for the first time, we follow the journey of the Thief; a pickpocket who roams the streets, relishing the thudding anticipation of the steal as he snatches wallets and watches seemingly at will. A psychological thriller, Nakamura takes us on a fascinating exploration of the criminal underworld, while offering mediation on human nature and fate.

This is no ordinary ‘crime’ novel, if indeed that label fits the mark; instead we delve deep into the mysteries of the human mind. Our pickpocket still has his gift, stealing with perfect precision – but something is missing; there is a void, an absentmindedness that he can’t seem to shake free. It is a sense of foreboding that plagues his waking dreams; he blacks out for long periods of time, returning to reality with no memory of what he has done since. The return of an old friend is the catalyst for our protagonist’s fall from fortune; snapping the thin thread holding his life in relative comfort, and plunging him into a downward spiral of ruthless mob leaders, from which he will struggle to escape. The past, then, sneaks up on our protagonist in the way that he so successfully manages to creep up undetected to his victims.

In truth then, the plot moves slowly in Nakamura’s text. The characterisation isn’t particularly strong, and as readers we are given next to zero information about our protagonist’s past – aside from a murmured name of a previous lover. Despite this, I believe this is the point – it works. The ambiguity of the novel adds to the tension and anticipation throughout, and I for one was interested to see where it would go next. At times it is slow going, but although the philosophical musings of our narrator and indeed the criminal that holds his life in his hands, are not particularly profound, they do much to infuse the story with an interestingness that makes up for the lack of plot.

Our protagonist, aside from being a talent in his field and ponderous in life, is also sympathetic. Through a sub-plot surrounding a young boy and his mother, Nakamura develops another level to his text and reveals more about the nature of our pickpocket. In a store he spots a mother and her son, poor and stealing from the shelves in order to put food in their stomach. He saves them from being caught, and as the novel progresses, reluctantly begins to take the young boy under his wing. It is interesting to watch as their relationship develops, and indeed how he comes to care for the boy. It is something that pleases him, fills the void that has begun to open; the emptiness and loneliness is replaced by a warmth when he gazes upon the boy that admires and looks up to him. I feel that throughout the text the author manages to craft a fantastic conflict in our protagonist: that blend of an introverted criminal forced to hide in the shadows of society, against the need to be a part of it. After all, even the most reclusive of people need someone in their lives.

The dénouement of The Thief is an interesting one. In some ways it feels almost unfinished; an ambiguous ending which answers no questions, and leaves the reader with perhaps a host of fresh ones. Yet in others there seems to be a strange sense of finality. Even we know not how things will turn out, in some ways whatever happens, this acts as a rebirth for our protagonist. I have heard from many that have raged against the ending of Nakamura’s novel, but I for one felt profoundly affect by it, and perhaps that was the idea: to leave the reader asking the questions hours after turning that final page.

Overall then, The Thief is cleverly written; offering a refreshing look at human nature, while at the same time providing us a glance at the seedy criminal underworld. Perhaps there will be some that will frown at the slow pace and ambiguous ending, but in my eyes it is a fantastic psychological thriller, that is more than worth a read.(less)

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Dec 27, 2012 Randy rated it 5 of 5 stars

THE THIEF is the first English language publication of Funimori Nakamura's prize winning novel. In only ten years, the young author has garnered some impressive awards in his native Japan. THE THIEF won the 2010 OE Prize, Japan's largest literary prize.

It's the story of a pickpocket told in first person and our hero remains anonymous throughout the book. He's quite accomplished at what he does, having worked up from shoplifting in his youth. A loner, he has no family or friends, sails through li...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Raven rated it 4 of 5 stars

I must admit to having read very little Japanese crime fiction, but drawn by a cover quote from Natsuo Kirino, the author of the remarkable ‘Out’, I was immediately hooked by this bijou slice of Japanese noir. Centred on the criminal activities of pickpocket, Nishimura, this is a at times shocking, but poignant tale of the seedy underbelly of Tokyo. Nishimura spends his days targeting prosperous looking individuals with his deft pickpocketing skills but then finds himself coerced by a fellow fri...more I must admit to having read very little Japanese crime fiction, but drawn by a cover quote from Natsuo Kirino, the author of the remarkable ‘Out’, I was immediately hooked by this bijou slice of Japanese noir. Centred on the criminal activities of pickpocket, Nishimura, this is a at times shocking, but poignant tale of the seedy underbelly of Tokyo. Nishimura spends his days targeting prosperous looking individuals with his deft pickpocketing skills but then finds himself coerced by a fellow friend and member of the criminal fraternity into a seemingly straightforward house invasion that leads to murder. Manipulated by an enigmatic and philosophical crime boss, Kizaki, he finds himself in a desperate situation and is forced to take part in another job that leads himself into great peril. Running alongside this we also see a tentative friendship develop between Nishimura and a young boy who is falling into criminal ways due to the instability of his home life, and this relationship is beautifully captured as Nishimura, himself a criminal, attempts to liberate his protege from a life of crime.

This book is wonderful example of less being so much more with its brevity of narrative style and the compact nature of its prose. Despite its sparseness of style it captures all the salient details of location and atmosphere of everyday life in Tokyo, and the grim human experiences that lurk beneath this quintessentially modern metropolis. The characterisation is pitch perfect as Nishimura is raised from the status of common thief to an all to human protagonist, attempting to rescue the young boy and also by the references to Saeko, a former lover, whose absence impacts strongly on Nishimura’s psyche. The crime boss, Kizaki, is a debonair yet utterly ruthless man, who thinks nothing of using others as sacrificial pawns and using a high degree of reason and intelligence to achieve his aims.

A slim but ultimately satisfying read that rises above a simple tag of crime thriller into an altogether more literary exploration of the criminal mind that challenges the reader’s assumptions at every turn. A tale of morality and redemption in equal measure. and an author that I will certainly return to in the future.
(less)

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Mar 26, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-crime-fiction-and-mystery, translated-fiction

for a longer and much more in-depth review, redirect here.

The Thief is a very good read, intensely satisfying with a great deal of psychological depth to go along with the crime elements of the novel. The central character is a pickpocket named Nishimura (whose name is only stated once) who has sharpened his skills to an elite level over the years to the point where he can easily remove a wallet, sift through its contents and sometimes return it to its owner, all without the victim's knowledge...more for a longer and much more in-depth review, redirect here.

The Thief is a very good read, intensely satisfying with a great deal of psychological depth to go along with the crime elements of the novel. The central character is a pickpocket named Nishimura (whose name is only stated once) who has sharpened his skills to an elite level over the years to the point where he can easily remove a wallet, sift through its contents and sometimes return it to its owner, all without the victim's knowledge. He takes money and leaves the rest of the contents, always clever enough to avoid holding onto anything that would attract police attention. He plies his trade in crowded places, subways, trains, etc., possessing an uncanny ability to blend in well no matter where he finds himself; conversely, he lives anonymously and has very few human ties. He had a girlfriend once, and he has a friend, Ishikawa, who was wanted in connection with fraud. Avoiding the warrant issued for his arrest, Ishikawa left for the Phillipines, Pakistan (where he officially "died") and Kenya before returning to Japan to assume the identity of a dead man. Complicating matters, our narrator becomes involved with a mother and son whom he first meets in a supermarket, where they make an inept attempt at stealing food. Even though he is a complete loner, he begins to feel a bond with the boy, whose path he crosses more than once since the boy is often sent out on shoplifting missions by his mother, a prostitute and drug addict.

With Ishikawa back in Tokyo, the narrator is drawn into the darkest circle of Tokyo's underworld scene, where he comes across a sociopathic crime boss for whom power seems to be the acme of earthly existence. He gets caught up in a home robbery which goes very badly, not solely for the owner of the item the narrator and his cohorts are recruited to steal, but also for some of the criminals involved. As a result of his participation, the narrator finds himself in an impossible situation with an untenable outcome: either he faces a nearly-impossible challenge of his criminal lifetime or he loses the one valuable thing he has.

The Thief is an intense read, although it may disappoint some readers because of its lack of clear-cut standard formulations to which people have become accustomed in their crime fiction. There is a wonderful "story-within-a-story" segment within the novel dealing with both power and fate, turning the reader's attention to issues beyond the crimes committed in this book. It does take some getting used to, but once you get into it, the author amps up the pace without using any gimmicky literary devices, letting the suspense build until you have to keep turning pages just to find out what's going to happen.

Kudos to Soho for bringing this book to the reading public. (less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Film Noir meets Georges Simenon

“The Thief” was amazingly good. It’s about a Tokyo pick pocket who gets caught up with some big time criminals. It’s a very short book so I was shocked at how psychological it was. I’m not sure how the author was able to include such an in depth take on Nishimura, the main character in so few words. Nishimura spends his days on packed trains and packed streets finding his mark and swiftly moving in. He has standards though. He only takes the cash and puts the rest...more

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Dec 23, 2012 J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, japan, con-games

Tight, understated mystery that does what a lot of mysteries seem incapable of-- staying internally coherent, keeping up intensity while narrowing in on its goals. So much else is really optional if the author can keep the story travelling along as he has launched it, at the right tempo and pitch... Landing at unforseen but inevitable places, moments of brief certainty in an uncertain world.

This is one of those first person stories where the author doesn't quite concede the character (or maybe...more
Tight, understated mystery that does what a lot of mysteries seem incapable of-- staying internally coherent, keeping up intensity while narrowing in on its goals. So much else is really optional if the author can keep the story travelling along as he has launched it, at the right tempo and pitch... Landing at unforseen but inevitable places, moments of brief certainty in an uncertain world.

This is one of those first person stories where the author doesn't quite concede the character (or maybe the integrity) of the protagonist, until things are well underway. Definitely influenced by outsiders ala Bowles, Simenon, and Camus, our hero here verges on both darkness and light, so there's an internal hierarchy at work. The confidence tricks and scams that are the day-to-day operations here are the baseline of the story, but the real clash is way overhead, in the realms of morality and, ultimately, meaning itself.

With that double set of primary concerns, what suffers in the book is the atmosphere; the clean, pared-away prose has not enough room for rendering locale, and that is unfortunate. For Japanese readers, it is presumed that they can imagine a clandestine chase through the Tokyo underground, or the environs of Shinjuku at night. For the reader who can picture the detail and rush of modern Japan, there are signposts enough-- but as an investigation of that world, for the unfamiliar westerner, we are left more or less alone.

What makes this such a great book, though, is not what is abbreviated in the description of locale; after all, rendering an intriguing, taut narrative is much more difficult than describing location. By keeping to a spare and almost dreamlike prose, Mr. Nakamura delivers what many western mysteries seem to miss. Which is that the story must follow not just a character as he makes his way through a crisis, but the logical extremes of that character's persona as those sensibilities navigate, perhaps even predict, the way through the inferno. This can be seen as a direct inheritance from pulp and noir; wherein the tragedy, the discontinuity of the environment is mirrored in the tragedy of the character, who reflects that struggle in his misadventure, in a life on the bent side.

What I can't wait to see is what Nakamura does next; this is so nearly-perfect in the basics, that the sky's the limit on how much further he may go. The Night sky, of course. (less)

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Apr 13, 2012 Drew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, japanese-noir

I've been a huge fan of Japanese crime/mystery fiction ever since I read Out by Natsuo Kirino. I started devouring Japanese noir books, loving Kirino, Kenzo Kitakata and some of Miyuki Miyabe's novels. I read a so-so review of the Thief in the Washington Post. It said that it wasn't a thriller or action-packed, but it seemed more of a reflection on the main character, a pickpocket. I thought that that's exactly what I loved about Japanese fiction I've read. The books I've read are a social criti...more

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Nov 10, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Moments before his end, The Thief's protagonist is asked "Do you believe in fate? Was your fate controlled by me, or was being controlled by me your fate?" There is a hint of foreignness to some of the dialog in this story, originally published in Japanese, with references to fate, haiku-like passages, and passing references to what seems to be Japanese folklore. And I found this one of the reasons why this book was so alluring - it gave me an insight into the Japanese culture just from the way...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Kurt Edwards rated it 1 of 5 stars

I won this book in a goodreads giveaway. I would love to say that this book had a fantastic adventurous ending. In fact I would love to say that this book had an ending at all. After reading the book I am not sure that the author submitted the whole document to his editor. I think he may have hit the send button a little to early on his email. About halfway through the book I looked at other ratings of this book and saw that someone gave it a one star. I thought wow that is a little harsh. I oft...more

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May 13, 2012 Beatnik Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...

A Tokyo pickpocket gets in over his head when he becomes mixed up in an armed robbery and murder plot, while at the same time finding himself the unlikely mentor to a young boy whose irresponsible mother has pushed him into shoplifting and pickpocketing as well. This book is a fast-paced, quick read in which the least despicable characters are our heroes, the pickpockets. It's a good book to read on your morning commute, particularly if you travel on a cro...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Jann Barber rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I won a copy of this book through the Good Reads First Read program. This is an uncopyedited edition.

I always wonder how much is lost in translation and feel that this is probably a more eloquent read in the native Japanese. Still, I enjoyed the translated version.

It's a story, but also a character study. Ishikawa, the thief's mentor, approaches him about a job he can't refuse. Their part in the job involves tying up the secretary/mistress of an older, wealthy man while others tie up the man and...more

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Jan 30, 2012 E.A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I won THE THIEF by Fuminori Nakamura from Goodreads. This book is about a pickpocket who gets in over his head. Though I couldn't really relate to the thief, I found his character fascinating and I loved how he interacted with the young boy. There are two storylines that are going on concurrently. The first is how the thief is working a robbery with two of his associates and a group of thugs. The second takes place after the robbery and he is back in town and just kind of drifting through life....more

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Jan 29, 2012 Kenneth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, crime-sleuth-mystery

This book is fast-paced and dramatic in all the best ways. The thief's obsession with stealing gives a very human edge, and everything he does heightens the sense that the proverbial noose is tightening. The references to the tower are unfortunately confusing; I guess it is a metaphor for honor and humanity, but it just isn't conveyed well enough. The young boy is an interesting side-note (view spoiler)bu...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, japanese-lit, standalone, thriller

The narrator makes his living as a pickpocket in Tokyo. When the man who taught him the art, not to mention his only true friend, finds himself on the wrong side of the Yakuza, he sees the likely impending end to his own life. But can he run or are his heart strings tied to the city?

Nakamura is a best-selling writer in Japan, and this is his first novel to be translated to English. I'm a fan of the crime/noir novels coming out of Japan, and this one certainly didn't let me down.

The narrator is e...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Warren Shanks rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction

I won a copy through Goodreads First Reads.

The Thief is a very quick read at only 200 or so pages but was still a strong story. The book provides an absorbing perspective of a master pickpocket practicing his craft.

Nishimura can move anonymously through a crowd, invading people’s pockets without them suspecting a thing before their wallet has been emptied and dumped in a mailbox. Stealthy as he may be Nishimura cannot escape his past. Reentering his life, Kizaki is a dangerous man that has pla...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Ian Caithness rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review was originally published at http://deadinkbooks.com

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections…. But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in hi...more This review was originally published at http://deadinkbooks.com

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections…. But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It’s an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.

Due to be published in March by Soho Press, The Thief is a translated novel by Fuminori Nakamura from the original Japanese into English. It is a rare treat that is not only extremely accessible but enjoyable to read, fast-paced, thrilling and oddly nihilistic in its conclusion. The Thief represents one of those rare novels in which the conclusion is sufficiently open-ended to allow people to make their own minds up about the protagonist’s ending.

The Thief is one of those novels that can be read in a matter of hours and still be satisfied with the ending. A novel is often defined by its readibility, by how many times a person can read it and glean a different interpretation from it. The Thief isn’t one of these novels. While the ending is open and offers readers the freedom to determine their own conclusion to the novel, it will likely only be read once and then abandoned on the shelves. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it highlights how the digital reader has changed literature from a form that offers a multitude of interpretations from a single novel to inexpensive novels that people can pick up and put down without feeling guilty about their purchase. The trick is to know what constitutes “good fiction” from the rest of the content that is uploaded daily on anything from Goodreads to the Amazon Kindle store.

The Thief tells the story of an anonymous protagonist who is faced with a multitude of problems. It’s not a novel centred around one idea or concept but a multitude of ideas from the family, isolation, nihilism and fatalism. People who are conscious of ideas like pre-determinism will appreciate how Nakamura has considered these ideas in his novel. It’s a constant theme running throughout the novel and represents itself in a multitude of characters from the protagonist to meta-narratives within the novel. It’s neither a complicated novel nor is it a novel that won’t leave people thinking. The idea that the protagonist is fixed in what he does comes towards the end of the novel but then readers will be conscious afterwards of how the trend begins from the start.

Had I not dipped in and out of this novel in between other readings, I no doubt would have finished the novel in the space of a few hours. It’s not a long novel and because it’s so thrilling and exciting – you get a rush of excitement, a tension in your fingers whenever the protagonist tries to steal a wallet or commit a crime – you don’t care much for the length. You simply read it and before you know it, you’ve finished it. If anything, that’s the major flaw with it. There are so many dimensions to the novel that the author could have explored that he chose not to – the relationships between different people, the importance of “The Tower”, his backstory. All of these dimensions could have been explored but, sadly, they weren’t.

The listed price on Amazon is £12.05 for the Kindle edition and I don’t think it’s worth that much. For that price, you expect an extremely engaging and exciting novel and while it’s certainly exciting, it’s not the kind of novel you’d read again and, for that price, it has to be. It’s not complex. You don’t have to think about some of the deeper themes in the novel if you don’t want to. In that respect, the pricing is all wrong and it represents a major problem with how publishers price their novels. It prices out people who are looking for cheap, accessible novels like this one is. If Soho Press correct this problem with their pricing, they could very well have a bestseller on their hands.(less)

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Apr 25, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

I mean to give this 3.5 stars, but alas, there are no half star ratings. The Thief is very well written. The prose is very descriptive without being overbearing. I can see how this book is deserving of awards on that fact alone. It excels at bringing you into the mind of a Tokyo pickpocket.

However, as a thriller, as one might be wont to categorize this book given its title, it does not satisfy. To me, the story is just a vehicle to demonstrate Nakamura's writing ability. Nakamura uses the plot...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Candace rated it 4 of 5 stars

What the heck happened at the end? Ugg..I love and hate it when a books leave things to my imagination.

I liked the world that Nakamura created. First, I liked that it was a Japanese author and the setting was in Japan. This created such a different cultural flavor than American books. Also, I tried to imagined how I would be at pickpocketing and I realized that I would fail. I am missing the ability to be quiet and invisible. It would take incredible nerve to stick two fingers into someones pock...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Ann Littlewood rated it 3 of 5 stars

"A literary crime masterpiece that follows a Japanese pickpocket lost to the machinations of fate. Bleak and oozing existential dread, The Thief is simply unforgettable."

So says the publisher. And it won a big literary award in Japan. Bleak, for sure, noir as all git out. In first person POV, a young Japanese man evinces no family, interests, connections, or passions, only delight in his pickpocketing skills. He's bullied and tricked by the inevitable yakuza into a dangerous position. His sole e...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012_release_read, mainstream, read_2012, review_fbc, t1_recommended_2012

FBC Rv (links there)

INTRODUCTION: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates, is a modern crime/thriller novel with philosophical overtones which attracted my attention on two counts. It is written by a Japanese author (see HERE and HERE for two of my recent reviews of Japanese novels and of course 2011's top book of mine was 1Q84) and it is published by Soho Press which just put out the wonderful Andromeda Lax-Romano novel The Detour.

Even so, I hesitated befor...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Karla rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Thief, Fuminori Nakamura (3.5)
This is a very short, easy to read, introduction to the style of some current Japanese novelists. The writing reminds me of Murakami in his mixture of description with an air of haunting melodrama. This is a first person narrative from a pickpocket in Tokyo who is inalterably drawn into more serious situations with very scary underworld characters. I think Nakamura-san is smart to use first person as the reader becomes more sympathetic to the plight of this anti...more

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About Fuminori Nakamura

His debut novel Jū (The Gun) won the Shinchō New Author Prize in 2002. Also received the Noma Prize for New Writers ini 2004 for Shakō [The Shade]. Winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 2005 for Tsuchi no naka no kodomo (Child in the Ground). Suri (Pickpocket) wont the Ōe Kenzaburō Prize in 2010. His other works include Sekai no Hate (The Far End of the World), Ōkoku (Kingdom), and Meikyū (Labyrinth)

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