<p><b>Praise for Keiichiro Hirano’s <i>A Man</i></b></p><p>“Hirano’s English-language debut is a shape-shifting psychological thriller…As back-alley gritty and entertaining as a Raymond Chandler novel, the book asks what it means to be ‘you’ and suggests that the answer means nothing at all. Hirano’s stylish, suspenseful noir should earn him a stateside audience.” <b>—<i>Publishers Weekly</i></b></p><p>“Keiichiro Hirano’s <i>A Man</i> has all the trappings of a gripping detective story: a bereaved wife, a dead man whose name belongs to someone else, mysterious coded letters, a lawyer intent on uncovering the truth. Together with a willfully understated title, however, these features belie a deeply thoughtful novel whose mystery premise gives way to an examination of the most profound questions of identity and artistic creation. In a work so rooted in Japanese cultural history, the questions posed by the author become distinctly literary, moving ultimately to address the very practice of novel writing.” <b>—The Arts Desk</b></p><p>“A riveting examination of desire and identity, <i>A Man</i> patiently unpicks the nature of unfulfilled aspirations. Keiichiro Hirano has written a multilayered tale of human reinvention, at once eminently readable and deeply moving.” <b>—Tash Aw, author of <i>The Harmony Silk Factory</i> and <i>Five Star Billionaire</i></b></p><p>“There is no doubt that Keiichiro Hirano is an author with an extremely pioneering and modern spirit. His works have opened up a very imaginative space in analyzing and exploring the spiritual world of humanity.” <b>—Sheng Keyi, author of <i>Northern Girls</i> and <i>Death Fugue</i></b></p><p><b>Praise for Keiichiro Hirano</b></p><p>“Hirano has continued to grapple with new themes ever since his debut. In this work, he has arrived at the primal question of what validates human existence.” <b>—Yōko Ogawa, author of <i>The Memory Police</i></b></p>