Grasshopper

Grasshopper (Japanese title Gurasuhoppā, English Grasshopper) is the opening work of Kotaro Isaka's "Hitman Trilogy" and was shortlisted for the Naoki Prize. The story begins with what seems an ordinary car accident: the protagonist Suzuki was once a teacher whose wife died in a hit-and-run; to find the culprit he quits his job, infiltrates the yakuza organization "Senkin," and works as an ordinary company employee near the Terahara family home. Just as he finally identifies his target, a stranger suddenly appears at the intersection and pushes the culprit under the wheels. The novel advances through alternating multiple viewpoints: the swordsman nicknamed "Cicada" excels at wiping out entire households but is exploited as cheap labor by his employer Iwanishi; "Whale" is a "suicide hand" who can make people willingly die, is long haunted by the ghosts of those suicides, and decides to settle his past; "Mantis" is an elusive "pusher" who targets people waiting at red lights. Wasp is a poison expert of unknown identity. These hitmen, each with a unique skill and originally uninvolved with one another, are drawn into the same vortex by the same car accident, and Suzuki's only weapon is the memories he shared with his late wife. Isaka writes violence and death with a light, humorous touch, stitching absurdity and warmth together through multi-strand narration; critics have called it a fine work of a "Kafkaesque world."