Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four is going to be one of the biggest books of 2016. Literally. The hardback comes in at 635 pages and as you can see it’s a book that stands up on its own. You could even say it’s the printed equivalent of six-four, 220lbs.
Better than that, though, is the fact that we’ve got two exclusive audio chapters from this Japanese crime mystery for you to listen to free right here on the site. That’s 50 minutes of crime listening pleasure, courtesy of the book’s publisher, Quercus.
What’s funny is that the advance review copy of the book was sent out with a cassette tape on the front cover, which ties in nicely with this audio giveaway. It also ties in with the plot – in 1989, the parents of a kidnapped seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl had to listen to the abductor’s demands delivered on cassette. The girl was never seen again, and for 14 years they’ve had to live with the fact that the police botched the investigation. Then, in 2002, the case is blown wide open once again when a police press officer notices an anomaly in the evidence and begins investigating…
Six Four is the first book by Hideo Yokoyama to be translated into English, even though he is one of Japan’s most acclaimed fiction writers. The hardback is released 3 March.
Please let us know what you think of the recording in the comments below.
