It’s said that you can’t pick your family… what if they pick you?!
Now You’re One of Us
By Asa Nonami
Translated by Michael Volek and Mitsuko Volek
Mystery / Horror
Paperback, 240 pages, 5.5 x 8.25 inches
978-1-934287-03-3
U.S.$14.95 / CAN$16.95
It is said that marriage is about compromise, and no one understands this more than newlywed Noriko, who marries into the well-established Shito family. Four generations, eight in-laws—all under one roof—is an untenable proposition, unsettling at best for any bride, but Noriko’s new family members are sweet and caring. Living with them is a delight, and Noriko seems to have the perfect marriage.
Yet, the appearance of a disheveled man—asking suspicious questions about her new in-laws—plants a seed of doubt in Noriko’s mind, while she is hanging laundry one morning. Paranoia grows. The unusual behavior of her new family, which she once perceived as charming eccentricities, now appear to be sinister in nature. Their kind smiles, once filled with warmth, now disguise dark secrets. As Noriko delves deeper into the family’s machinations, she awakens to the horrifying reality of “marital compromise.”
Asa Nonami is the award-winning author of The Hunter (Kodansha International). She is the first recipient of the Japanese Mystery and Suspense Award and has won the Naoki Prize (Japanese equivalent of The National Book Award), joining a long and distinguished list of translated Japanese masters of popular fiction.
PRAISE FOR NOW YOU’RE ONE OF US
“Asa Nonami’s Now You’re One of Us does for marriage what Jaws did for a day at the beach, and males and females alike will surely get a chill out of it.”
—Joe B. Mauceri, fearsmag.com
“This pulpy family psychodrama is hugely entertaining—like watching some filmed version of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from an adapted screenplay by Mario Puzo and directed by Yasujiro Ozu.”
—TIME Asia
“At first, Now You’re One Of Us ambles along like one of Yasujiro Ozu’ls movies about Japanese home life, a drama of manners about marriage and extended families. Then it reveals its real subject by degrees—how a cult mind-set works to seduce outsiders and break their resistance—and it goes from Ozu coziness to full-blown Takashi Miike madness. In a good way, that is.”
—Serdar Yegulalp, thegline.com
“Creepy read.”
—The Daily Yomiuri
“The tropes of traditional, Western horror are completely ignored in this Japanese novel, and yet it evokes a sense of dread which is nothing less than genuinely disturbing […] Asa Nonami has crafted a fascinating horror story that lingers in the imagination long after the final page has been turned.”
—HorrorReader.com
“Jolting and disturbing, this is a powerful work;
it’s an unconventional tale despite the conventional gothic trappings.”
—hellnotes.com
“I’m guessing the author intended this disturbing tale as a critique of contemporary Japan, with its culture of rigid conformity. It excels nonetheless as a straightforward exercise in creeping apprehension, a real triumph of so-called quiet horror.”
—fright.com
“This novel is in the great tradition of Daphne du Maurier and Mary Roberts Rinehart, with lots of atmosphere and cryptic clues, and the creepy plotlines just pull us further and further into the darkness. ”
—The Globe and Mail
