Fuminori Nakamura

is the pseudonym of a Japanese author. Nakamura came to international attention when he won the 2010 Kenzaburō Ōe Prize for his novel, The Thief (掏摸, "Pickpocket"). The English translation of the novel was well received.

Biography

Nakamura grew up in Aichi Prefecture and graduated in 2000 with a degree in public administration from Fukushima University. He now lives in Tokyo.

Nakamura has already published two dozen books in Japan. His works have been translated into numerous languages and have been published in the United States, Great Britain, China, France and Spain, among others. Nakamura cites Franz Kafka and Fyodor Dostoyevsky as literary influences.

In 2002 he received the Shinchō Young Writer Prize for his debut novel The Gun (銃 Jū). In 2004 he was awarded the Noma Prize for Shakō, and the following year he received the Akutagawa Prize for The Boy in the Earth (土の中の子供 Tsuchi no naka no kodomo). In 2010 Nakamura received the Kenzaburō Ōe Prize for the novel The Thief (掏摸 Suri).

In 2018, The Gun was adapted as a feature film, screenwritten and directed by Masaharu Take.

The Wall Street Journal called The Thief a "chilling philosophical thriller" and included it in its Best Fiction of 2012, while Time Out Chicago called the novel a "breath of fresh air." The novel was also a finalist for the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Best Mystery/Thriller category.

The book, though marketed as crime fiction, was cited by some reviewers as being a work of literary fiction.