قصة الكتاب :
Vol. I: Shinchōsha (Shinchō Bunko), 2011. 480 pp. ¥670. ISBN
978-4-10-129041-6.
Vol. II: Shinchōsha (Shinchō Bunko), 2011. 513 pp. ¥710. ISBN
978-4-10-129042-3.
Hirano Keiichirō
Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1975 and raised in Fukuoka Prefecture.
Won the Akutagawa Prize in 1999 for Nisshoku [The Eclipse] while
a university student, the Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Prize
in 2009 for Dōn [Dawn], and the Minister of Education Encouragement
Prize for New Artists for Kekkai in the same year. Other works
include Ichigetsu monogatari [Tale of the First Moon], Sōsō [Farewell
to the Departed], and Kūhaku o mitashinasai [Fill Out the Blanks].

Hirano Keiichirō, one of the premier established writers of modern Japanese
literature, made a sensational debut in 1998 with Nisshoku [The Eclipse], a novel
set in medieval France. In the ensuing years, he followed up with his longest-ever
novel Sōsō [Farewell to the Departed], which fictionally depicts such historic
personages as Eugène Delacroix and Frédéric Chopin in nineteenth-century
France. These were two thoroughly intellectual novels completely dissociated from
the reality of today’s Japan.
In Kekkai, however, Hirano switches gears a decade after his debut to take a
good look at the festering underbelly of modern Japanese society. Set in the fall
of 2002, the tale gives an account of the gruesome discoveries of a severed human
head, hands, feet, and other body parts, first in Kyoto and then other locations
across Japan. Next to the head is found a defiant note from the killer, who signs
the message as Akuma [the Devil]. The story underscores the violence rampant in
modern society, as well as the dark side of humans that has been unleashed by the
Internet. Accordingly, the title serves as a warning that modern society is in danger
of committing a fatal error that will cause the dam to burst.
On the whole, the narrative evokes the prophetic vision used by Fyodor Dostoevsky
to probe human crime and punishment. However, there is no God in
Kekkai; instead, it is a story of crime in a godless age. (NM)