The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

First published in Japanese in 2009; published in translation by Soho Crime on March 20, 2012

The Thief is a Japanese version of noir, a dark psychological thriller that builds suspense rapidly as Nishimura, a pickpocket who often seems to be on the verge of a breakdown, becomes ensnared in the grip of a shadowy underworld figure in Tokyo. Nishimura's tension is palpable in the novel's early pages. He finds wallets in his pocket he does not remember stealing. He catches glimpses of a mysterious tower that he often saw in his childhood, a tower that may never have existed and that becomes a recurring, haunting image as the story progresses.

Nishimura imagines seeing his mentor, Ishikawa, as he looks into the faces of homeless men. For Ishikawa, picking pockets carried the ecstatic thrill of artistry. Not so for Nishimura as he nervously ponders Ishikawa's fate. The two men were wrapped up in a serious crime, more serious than Nishimura anticipated, and he hasn't seen Ishikawa since. The man who masterminded that crime soon recruits Nishimura to steal three things. The difficult assignments will tax Nishimura's skill as a pickpocket, but he is threatened with death if he fails.

The criminals in The Thief are unusually philosophical. Nishimura wonders whether there is "something deep-rooted in our nature" that compels people to steal. As a child he equated stealing with freedom; as an adult he's less certain of that equation. He thinks about how he has "rejected community" by reaching out his hands to steal, how he has "built a wall around myself and lived by sneaking into the gaps in the darkness of life." The mastermind, on the other hand, discusses the importance of balance, the need to feel sympathy and pity for a victim while torturing her to death. When the mastermind threatens Nishimura's life, he tells Nishimura not to take his life so seriously; he's just one of billions of people who are fated to die, and "fate shows no mercy." Nishimura sees it quite differently; he doesn't like his life, but he doesn't want to lose it. None of these musings are particularly profound but they add something out-of-the-ordinary to a story that is already offbeat.

The most interesting (and really, the only) relationship in Nishimura's life is with a child whose hooker mother forces him to shoplift. Despite Nishimura's detachment, his sense of isolation from the community of man, he feels protective of the boy. That plot thread builds interest in the story while adding another dimension to Nishimura.

Quite a lot in The Thief is left unexplained, although that makes sense within the context of the novel. As the criminal mastermind observes, "life is a mystery" and actions often seem arbitrary. Still, it's mildly annoying to invest time in a crime novel and then wonder what the crime actually was.

The simple but clever plot and swift pace make this short novel a quick read. I wouldn't recommend it to readers who want shiny, smiley, likable characters and happy endings. For fans of dark fiction, however, I would say that is one of the better Japanese crime novels I've come across, despite my reservations about its unresolved nature.

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