Dead-End Kids

After Japan's bubble economy burst, youth crime surged, brutal schoolyard beatings became frequent and teenage prostitution evolved into a regular part of urban life. A "lost generation" started venting their malaise by randomly attacking salarymen, assaulting the homeless and even killing their parents. Japan is still a rich country that pampers its young, but the nation and its children seem increasingly aimless.

In the gritty Gold Rush , Akutagawa prizewinner Miri Yu uncovers the psychic machinery linking wealth and violence, ennui and petty crime, boredom and murder in a tale of a teen who commits patricide, hiding the...

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