Seesaw Monster

“Author Kotaro Isaka employs his hallmarks of kinetic pacing, high-stakes action, and great characters to explore the nature of conflict, the power of close relationships, and the idea of progress. Poor Naoto. A pharmaceutical salesman in Japan in the booming 1980s, his job has him working long hours, answering to his demanding boss and entertaining entitled customers. And at home, his wife, Miyako, and his mother are always feuding, making each other miserable. Why can’t the two just get along? Then one day a mysterious visitor shows up at their door with a possible answer. Their conflict is larger — and far more ancient — than it might appear. When Naoto uncovers something wrong at work and his life is suddenly in danger, can the two women set aside their differences to save him? Decades later, in our near-future, surveillance, facial-recognition software, and AI dominate Japan. The most sensitive information lives only on paper, and Mito makes his living delivering it. When a chance meeting with a stranger on a train draws Mito into a possible conspiracy, he finds himself face-to-face with his own enemy, a tragic double whose life has been intertwined with his own. Is this another instance of the ancient feud? And what role will Miyako, now in her nineties, play in this deadly game?”–