170. "Real World" by Natsuo Kirino

Real World, Natsuo Kirino's third novel to be translated into English, opens with a high school boy murdering his mother. The girl next door, also a teenager, overhears the crime take place, and then she has an odd encounter with the boy, whom she has nicknamed Worm. For reasons she can't explain, she lies to the police and her parents about her interaction with Worm. In the meantime Worm, who has stolen her cell phone, begins calling the girl and her three closest friends. Each of them has her own distinct reaction to the crime and the criminal, and he brings out conflicting urges and motivations that will have profound ramifications for them all.

I didn't think Real World was as good as Kirino's previous works Out and Grotesque (which is an excellent and troubling read; I found myself wondering how, as a writer, Kirino lived with such nasty characters without becoming totally unhinged), but it's still a strong novel and very cognizant of the challenges surrounding the surreal lives of Japanese teenagers. Kirino points out the constant sense of threat adolescent girls face and the dangers they encounter daily; this pervading aura of dread and fear shapes the characters and their actions.

165. "The Piano Tuner" by David Mason

David Mason's The Piano Tuner is set primarily in Burma during 1886-1887. Edgar Drake, a London piano tuner, receives a request from the British War Office to travel to colonial Burma to service the piano of Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. It's an unusual request, but Carroll is an unusual man: By reciting poetry and playing music, he has managed to forge strong relationships with local tribes and rulers, enabling him to oversee a peaceful settlement in a conflict-ridden region.

Drake leaves his beloved wife in London and travels to Burma, where he confronts realities he could never have imagined: ruthless bandits, desperate poverty, fatally careless British soldiers, an elegant and mysterious native woman, the slow wheels of British bureaucracy, and finally Carroll himself.

His dedication to his mission--not because of any military or civic duty but because of his deep care for pianos--and his fascination with Carroll lead Drake to a series of decisions that will have fatal repercussions.

Some sections of the novel are written in a breathless, comma-laced prose that is difficult to follow, particularly when depicting dialogue. But overall, this is an evocative, powerful novel about a journey into an Asian heart of darkness.

164. "Fieldwork" by Mischa Berlinski

Continuing with the Southeast Asia theme, Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski takes place in Thailand and in the border regions of the Golden Triangle--Burma, Thailand, and China. The novel's narrator, also named Mischa Berlinski, becomes obsessed with the story of a Dutch-American archaeologist who committed suicide in a Thai jail more than a decade after she shot a missionary twice in the back.

Through interviews with people who knew Martiya van der Leun, the archaeologist; her own letters; forays into archaeology and the spiritual beliefs of local tribes; and discussions with the vast Walker clan--the family of missionaries that spawned the man van der Leun killed--Berlinski strives to understand the crime. In the process, he explores what has motivated four generations of the Walker family, and what compelled van der Leun to give up her American life to dwell in a hut with a pre-literate hill tribe. Her ultimate embrace of the tribal beliefs, at the same time the Walker scion is converting more and more tribe members away from those beliefs, leads to a conflict that the novel attempts to portray as inevitable.

The story is fascinating, and Berlinski is a strong writer, providing ample details about Thai life, history, and cultures to engage readers. My only critique is that the novel's ending felt anticlimactic and a little abrupt.