In the Miso Soup [2003, first edition in English]

Tokyo, New York, London:: Kodansha International, 2003. A bright, shiny, clean, square, tight copy. Sharp corners. The Dust Jacket would also be FINE but for just a hint of rubbing to the rear panel. NOT price clipped (22.95). No chips. No tears. No creases. No owner's name or bookplate. No remainder mark. Pages are crisp and clean. No underlining. No highlighting. No margin notes. Originally published in 1997 in Japanese, this is the uncommon first edition in English. "First edition, 2003" is so stated, with complete number row (03 04 05 06 07 10 987654321) on the copyright page. Bound in the publisher's dark gray textured boards. Purple endpapers. Complete with the original red silk ribbon page-marker sewn into the headband. Translated by Ralph McCarthy. From the Dust Jacket: "It is just before New Year's. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It isn't until the second night, however, in a scene that will shock you and make you laugh and make you hate yourself for laughing, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life. Kenji's intimate knowledge of Tokyo's sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of 'compensated dating' and 'selling it' among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about on every page. Kenji is our likable, if far from innocent, guide to the inferno of violence and evil into which he unwillingly descends -- and from which only Jun, his sixteen-year-old, can possibly save him.". First edition, 2003 (so stated). Hard Cover. Fine condition./Near Fine dust jacket.. 8vo. 182pp..