Four Black Japanese gay men team up to exact revenge in a culture where discrimination is deep-seated. A searing, darkly funny debut from the Akutagawa Prize–winning author.
Nobody at the corporate offices of Athletius Japan knows much about the massage therapist, Jackson-but rumors abound. He used to work as a model. He likes to party. He's mixed race-half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. He might be gay. Fueling the gossip is the sudden appearance of a violent pornographic video featuring a man who looks like a lot like Jackson.
When Jackson serendipitously meets three other queer mixed-race guys, he learns he's not the only one being targeted. Together they concoct a plan: find out who's responsible and, in the meantime, switch identities and play tricks on people-a boyfriend, a boss-who've wronged them, exploiting the fact that nobody can seem to tell them apart.
A short, blistering gut punch of a novel, Jackson Alone is at turns satirical and deadpan, angry and tender-a frank exploration of identity, race, and queerness in contemporary Japan that announces Jose Ando as a singular new talent in the global literary scene. Praise for Jose Ando
"The harmony that Jackson Alone finds between a pressing social theme and rhythmical narration filled me with a strange excitement I had never before experienced."
-Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police
"A unique idea reminiscent of the work of Jordan Peele."
-Amy Yamada, author of Bedtime Eyes Jose Ando was born and raised in Tokyo, and is of African-Asian heritage. His debut novel Jackson Alone was awarded the 59th Bungei Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize, as was his second novel, The Camouflaged Man. His third novel, Dtopia, won the 172nd Akutagawa Prize, solidifying his presence as one of Japan's brightest young literary stars.
Kalau Almony is a literary translator based in Kawasaki, Japan. Born and raised in Kailua, Hawaiʻi, he completed his BA in Comparative Literature at Brown University and MA in East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
