Durante un viaje de negocios en Kobe, Tsuneo Asai recibe la noticia de que su esposa Eiko ha fallecido de un infarto. Dado que sufría una enfermedad coronaria, la causa de la muerte no resulta tan extraña como el lugar donde ocurrió: un apartado barrio residencial de Tokio del que ella nunca le había hablado y en el que abundan los hoteles de citas. Intrigado, Asai tratará de averiguar las verdaderas circunstancias de su muerte a través de una investigación obsesiva que lo llevará a recomponer la inesperada vida secreta de su mujer.

Mientras acompañamos a un improvisado detective en este periplo lleno de giros inesperados, Seicho Matsumoto desliza su sutil crítica a la sociedad japonesa de mediados del siglo xx y a las rígidas convenciones y falsedades que la enturbian. Un intrigante rompecabezas hábilmente armado a través de algunos de sus temas predilectos: la mentira, la venganza y el miedo al escándalo.

Publicado en 1975, Un lugar desconocido es un clásico de la novela negra escrito por el maestro japonés del género y autor de obras tan populares como El expreso de Tokio.

A civil servant is called home from a business trip by the unexpected death of his wife. Apparently she had a heart attack in the street outside a cosmetics shop, took refuge inside and died. But what was she doing in that area anyway?

I was somewhat bemused for three-quarters of the book, not sure how much of the leaps in the husband's thinking were based on reality and how much was some sort of paranoia. The last quarter had all sorts of twists and turns and a rather abrupt ending - abrupt enough for me to wonder if I had a defective copy, but apparently not. ( )

For the most part, A Quiet Place is a not so subtle criticism of Japanese officialdom and bureaucracy. It centers on the story of an agricultural civil servant, Tsuneo Asai, a man in a loveless marriage whose only obsession is his work. The sudden death of his wife causes his world to crumble, albeit not in the way a normal person might imagine. Instead, Asai's world dissolves into a mania to restore his honor and, when that fails, to escape from the career threatening consequences of his once grand scheme.

There is an inevitability to this story from the very first. It plays out exactly as most readers will expect it to. So from the standpoint of a pure mystery, A Quiet Place will not meet most expectations. In place of them, comes the portrayal of a man undergoing a mental breakdown, all caused explicitly by the crushing oppression of the social system he lives within. Even the very last "quiet place," the one within his own soul, is no escape. Nothing is there to save him. And not all his plotting can reverse things. Asai outsmarts and condemns himself to his own punishment.

This novel is not quite as good as the other Matsumoto I have just finished, Inspector Imanishi Investigates. Part of the problem may be the translation. A Quiet Place is often ragged, especially in transitions between paragraphs. And there is quite bit of unnecessary repetition. Sometimes, a translator needs to take the knife to the original material, and I fear this particular one lacked the will to do so, here. Inspector Imanishi, on the other hand, not only flowed smoothly but seemed to capture more of the subtle mannerisms of Japanese conversation and commentary. For that reason alone, I think Imanishi is the better work. But both novels are well worth the time to explore their world of haunting crimes and murders. ( )

This is an intriguing Japanese psychological thriller. Perhaps, thriller is not quite the right word, but it's the story of the psychological dissolution of a man after the death of his wife.

Tsuneo Asai is an upper mid-level civil servant away on a business trip when he receives word that his wife Eiko has died suddenly. Eiko suffered from a heart condition, so her death is not entirely unexpected. However, after Tsuneo returns home and learns more about the circumstances of her death, he becomes suspicious. At the time Eiko suffered her purported heart attack, she was in a strange part of the city where to Tsuneo's knowledge she had never been and had no reason to visit. He wonders why his wife was in that area, why, with her heart condition she was walking uphill, and what sort of secret life she may have been leading.

This is a book with complex characters who think and act within the confines of Japanese cultural expectations. Tsuneo's pursuit of the truth about Eiko's death becomes an all-consuming obsession, and we follow him along the dark paths he travels after he discovers his wife's secrets.

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars ( )

Very interesting story, told from one man's point of view. We are inside his head and following his logic right up until it all goes wrong. A wonderful look at the Japanese way of thinking. Fascinating. Great ending! ( )