Ashes

The vice and virtues of middle age are espied with an eagle eye in this hardboiled story about a mid-career gangster. Unfolding through chiseled sketches and run through with tantalizing motifs, Kitakata's masterpiece follows the fortunes of a yakuza mobster as his moment of truth approaches. Cool, real, and cleansing, Ashes is a literary tonic."Ashes is a fascinating look at the largely hidden world of the yakuza, Japan's mafia." --Japan Visitor

"This yakuza fable reads like a treatment for a Takeshi Kitano film, and its aging mobster Tanaka evokes Beat's sullen screen ennui." - Mary Jacobi , The Village VoiceKenzo Kitakata is the undisputed don of hardboiled and mystery writing in Japan. Immensly popular wiht mature readers both male and female, his works have won numerous literary awards.