'A gorgeously entertaining, provocative book' Chicago Tribune
It is 4am when the ambulance comes to take the man's wife away - although no-one has called it, and there is nothing wrong with her. As he sets out to find her, he finds himself in the corridors of a vast underground hospital, where he encounters sinister medics, freakish sexual experiments and the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Even when he is suddenly appointed as the hospital's chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he is a horse, he will not give up his search. Secret Rendezvous is a nightmarish satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life.
'Reads as if it were the collaborative effort of Hieronymus Bosch, Franz Kafka and Mel Brooks' Chicago Sun Times
A disconcertingly funny book . . . both original and edgily entertaining ― The New York Times Book Review
Vivid and spooky ― Kirkus Reviews
Original and edgily entertaining. It confirms Abe as the best Japanese novelist (along with Shusaku Endo) since the deaths of Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata. ― The New York Times
About the Author
Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. Before his death in 1993, Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been bestsellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man and The Ruined Map.
