A review by flying_monkey
A Man by Keiichiro Hirano

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Another excellent contemporary Japanese novel, although unlike most of those I have read recently, this one was not written by a woman. The story centres on a lawyer who is asked to investigate the case of a recently deceased man who turns out not to have been the person his wife and family believed him to be. This opens up threads at once criminal, political and philosophical as the lawyer starts to question his own decisions and life choices. Although there are thriller elements to this novel, it handles the facts and tropes in a completely different way than they would have been handled by a thriller writer. The author is more interested in what makes people become the people they are (or appear to be) than in the solution to any crime and as a result the story is meandering and builds slowly to its inevitable but still unexpcted revelations. Highly recommended.