Lady Joker, Volume 1 by Marie Iida, Kaoru Takamura

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/497488 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Lady Joker, Volume 1 Series: #1 of Lady Joker Author: Marie Iida, Kaoru Takamura Narrator: Brian Nishii Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 20 hours 51 minutes Release date: April 13, 2021 Genres: Drama Publisher's Summary: One of Japan's great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus. Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination. Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan's largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers. Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by 'the Monster with 21 Faces,' Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan's literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.