CANNIBALS by Shinya Tanaka

Translated by Kalau Almony

Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka has to be one of the most odious little books I’ve ever read. And normally that might be enough to put you off reading it except, well, I think it’s repulsiveness is kind of the point. Objectively, it’s a very good book. Heck, it won the Akutagawa Prize, though so many Japanese books translated into English also seem to have that I’m beginning to suspect it’s handed out weekly.

Anyhoo… Cannibals is bleak. Very, very bleak. Toma has found love and will do anything to avoid becoming his abusive, drunk, womanising father. But, you know, apples/trees… one day he chokes his girlfriend during sex. Then beats up a prostitute. Cue existential despair. I’m being reductive, of course. The evocation of small town Japanese life is brilliant. The interplay between Toma, his dad, his abandoned fishmonger mum, and the dad’s new girlfriend is sharp and tense. And the denouement is horrific but kind of glorious. The graphic violence against women… less so.

Tanaka has bottled the most toxic of masculinities and dared you to drink it. There’s uncomfortable insight to be had in taking a swig, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if you puke.

Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka (Tr. Kalau Almony)
Honford Star, 2024
82 pages