Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales

Yoko Ogawa

Apr 2013 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Kaleo Griffith and Johanna Parker

About this audiobook

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor-who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders-their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful web. Yoko Ogawa's Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the very end.

Ratings and reviews

A good book, but I wouldn't call this horror. I found this on a list of Asian horror novels, and while there are horror elements to some of the stories, there is not a consistent tone of horror. (I understand horror is subjective like comedy so maybe this is a horror novel for some. Perhaps it just isn't my Western standard of "horror.") I still thoroughly enjoyed it. In some ways, it reminded me of Shirley Jackson's work in that Ogawa took seemingly mundane incidents of daily life and let them start to spiral. I was consistantly engaged in the stories. Both narrators for the book (they switch off every story) did excellent jobs. They had different styles of reading, but both dialed up their inflections to nearly unhinged when the stories themselves became unhinged. I would recommend this to anyone looking for something bleak and unsettling, but safe enough that it won't actually scare you.

About the author

Yoko Ogawa is the award-winning author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Hotel Iris, The Gift of Numbers, and The Diving Pool.

Kaleo Griffith, who has been called "powerful, with the presence of a young Timothy Dalton" by the Hollywood Reporter, has won multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards. He holds an MFA in acting from Rutgers University, and his film and television credits include Oliver Stone's Talk Radio, Law & Order, and All My Children.

Johanna Parker, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has earned an esteemed Audie Award and three Audie nominations. She has received high praise for her work in all genres, including her portrayal of Sookie Stackhouse in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries series.