There is a dog in this novel named Tamon — short for Tamonten, a Buddhist guardian deity. By the time you finish The Boy and the Dog, you will understand why.
The Soil (Origin): Hokkaido / Tokyo, Japan
Seishu Hase is a pen name. The man behind it, born Toshihito Bando in Hokkaido in 1965, spent decades writing gritty yakuza crime fiction, a body of work so visceral that several novels were adapted into films by legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike. He was nominated six times for the Naoki Prize, Japan's highest award for popular fiction.
He won it on the seventh attempt — for a book about a dog.
The Soul (The Producer Profile): The Shinjuku Noirist
Set against the devastation of Japan's 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, The Boy and the Dog follows Tamon, a stray dog making a five-year journey across a broken country to find the boy he loves. Along the way he becomes companion to a criminal, a lonely wife, a sex worker, a man dying of cancer. Each life he touches is quietly transformed.
This is not a sentimental book. Hase's background in crime fiction gives it an unflinching edge , the Japan he depicts is rural, struggling, invisible to the glossy Tokyo of postcards. But moving through all of it is Tamon, steady and devoted, a guardian in the truest sense.
Keep a handkerchief nearby. You will need it.
Curator’s Allocation Note
We have secured Hase’s The Boy and the Dog as a definitive example of our Japanese Noir allocation. This is a lean, high-viscosity vintage that moves at a relentless pace. We recommend consuming this work in a single, focused session, ideally under a single lamp while the city hums outside. Best paired with a neat, smoky whisky or a deep, dark roast coffee that can stand up to the intensity of his Shinjuku terroir.
Pepper Pug's Verdict
CQO Pepper’s Verdict: We have a Chief Quality Officer at Bookcellar who happens to be a pug. We know, perhaps better than most, what dogs do to a human heart. This one had to be in the Cellar.
Pepper. Chief Quality Officer 🐾 with extra enthusiasm, for obvious reasons.