Sympathy Tower Tokyo
A Novel
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Provocative…Masterfully subtle.” —The New York Times
“An architectural feat in itself.” —Financial Times
The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon: a speculative, prophetic novel following a young and brilliant celebrity architect in Tokyo who takes on her most controversial project yet—perfect for readers of Klara and the Sun and Chain-Gang All-Stars.
Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of radical sympathy toward criminals has become normalized. The incarcerated are considered victims influenced by their environments to commit crime and are labeled accordingly as Homo miserabilis.
A grand, yet controversial, skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house lawbreakers in compassionate comfort—Sympathy Tower Tokyo. Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city’s new centerpiece but is filled with doubt. Haunted by a terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might inherently disagree with the values of the project, which should be the pinnacle of her career. As Sara grapples with these conflicting emotions, her relationship with her gorgeous—and much younger—boyfriend grows increasingly strained. In search of solace and in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot…
The recipient of Japan’s highest literary prize, Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an extraordinary novel from one of the most exciting new global voices. Partly inspired by conversations with an artificial intelligence, it offers an urgent and brilliant defense of the power of language written by humans, a moving exploration of the imaginative impulse, and an often hilarious send-up of our modern world’s unrelenting conformity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Qudan's provocative English-language debut, set in near-future Japan, centers around an architect grappling with ethical and philosophical questions about her latest project. It begins in 2026, when 37-year-old Sara Machina receives a career-making opportunity to design a new Tokyo landmark: a prison in the form of a comfortable apartment tower. The project draws on the theories of a sociologist who argued that criminals should be rebranded as victims rather than perpetrators, due to structural issues such as income inequality that led them to crime. While Sara works on her proposal, she begins a relationship with handsome store clerk Takt, who is much younger than her. After the tower opens in 2030, Takt takes a job there as a "supporter," a euphemism for guard, and gives a tour to Max Klein, an American journalist. Max also interviews Sara, who is alternately celebrated and vilified online, "described as both a goddess who'd brought beauty and peace to Tokyo and a witch whose tower had plunged society into confusion." The blend of voices, including passages generated by ChatGPT as Takt tailors his correspondence with Max and Sara uses the platform to work through her conflicted thoughts about the tower, offers an intriguing window into the controversy following the tower's opening. It's a disarming novel of ideas.
