Devils in daylight
When he died, Tanizaki left behind a body of work unanimously considered to be one of the most important of the Japanese 20th century. Editions Picquier announces the publication of a previously unpublished detective novel by the Japanese master of the genre, Jun’ichirô Tanizaki: “Dans l’œil du démon” (Devils in daylight), translated in French by Patrick Honnoré and Ryoko Sekiguchi.
A writer is interrupted in his work by a friend who offers to watch a murder. In a Tokyo slum, they witness what they believe to be a sordid assassination orchestrated by a demonic woman, with whom his friend will fall madly in love. Locked in his passion, he realises that he is destined to be her next prey. Soon, he asks his friend to witness his own death. But the next day, back at his friend’s house, the writer finds his friend alive and waiting for him…
A master of illusion, Tanizaki distils all his obsessions in this novel: voyeurism, mirror play and mise en abyme…
Dans l’oeil du démon (Devils in daylight)
Jun’ichirô Tanizaki
French translation by Patrick Honnoré and Ryoko Sekiguchi
éditions Picquier
available in English
New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2019
