01 Nov / TEKKON KINKREET: Black & White by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Lillian Olsen [in Bloomsbury Review]
Two young urchins, Black and White, run the streets of Treasure Town, a decaying urban playground of violence and destruction. Because they have superhuman abilities, even the local police and the yakuza (Japan’s criminal underworld) can’t control them – the boys are the town’s de facto protectors. When a new evil presence enters their turf, the boys must fight off unspeakable, inhumane powers, which they manage to do until they’re separated when White is brutally injured.
On his own, Black struggles to maintain not only his shaky control of the town but that of his own unhinging psyche as well. At its core, TEKKON KINKREET is a haunting story about two little kids struggling to make it on their own in a world gone completely awry with only a newly sprouted apple tree to offer future hope.
Review: “TBR’s Editors’ Favorites of 2007,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2007
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2007 (United States)