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The Diving Pool [Paperback]

Yoko Ogawa (Author), Stephen Snyder (Translator)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Book Description

Publication Date: 2 April 2009

Beautiful, twisted and brilliant - discover Yoko Ogawa.

A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster-brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool - sparking an unspoken infatuation that draws out darker possibilities.

A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, but rather than a story of growth the diary reveals a more sinister tale of greed and repulsion.

Driven by nostalgia, a woman visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo. There she finds an isolated world shadowed by decay, haunted by absent students and the disturbing figure of the crippled caretaker.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (2 April 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099521350
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099521358
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.2 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 201,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Authors

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Y?ko Ogawa
Stephen Snyder

Product Description

Review

"Written in haunting, spare, shimmering prose...punctuated by acts of casual violence and vindictive spite. Profoundly unsettling, magnificently written and instantly memorable, these stories vindicate [Ogawa's] status as one of Japan's greatest living writers" (Guardian )

"Yoko Ogawa's British debut is inexcusably belated....Ogawa is a conspicuously gifted writer... Not a word is wasted, yet each resonates with a blend of poetry and tension... mesmerising... To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare, and her stories continue to haunt. She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie brilliance. She should be discovered in Britain, and this book must surely begin the process" (Joanna Briscoe Guardian )

"The three Japanese novellas in The Diving Pool are both creepy and disturbingly lovely...spine-tingling uncertainty surfaces throughout the haunting prose" (Dazed & Confused )

"A fine collection of three queasily unsettling novellas... She invests the most seemingly banal domestic situations with a chilling and malevolent sense of perversity, marking her out as a master of subtle psychological horror" (Daily Telegraph )

"An intriguing trilogy of exquisitely sketched stories... Elegant, intelligent, quietly disturbing" (Financial Times )

Review

`hard not to finish in one go, Yoko Ogawa's stories are perfect for spooky bedtime reading - and not-so-sweet dreams.'
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling 25 Sep 2010
By Jude the Obscure
Format:Paperback
I thought this small collection of short stories was excellent - I read it all in one afternoon, as I couldn't put it down! The stories are told in quite a 'dreamy' way, typically by quite lonely characters who have thoughts that are dark (but aren't actually shocking - I found it surprisingly easy to empathise with the characters). Separately, the setting (Japan) and the author's style were both an interesting change from what I'm used to, and the writing is very crisp.

I don't think it would be for everyone - I suspect the stories and style would be either really appealing, or have no impact at all, depending on the reader. The closest thing I can think of that is like it is The Hours (Michael Cunningham).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Writing 28 Dec 2011
By Harry the book monkey
Format:Paperback
There are three short stories in this volume all about 50 pages each. They are all quite different but the quality of the writing is outstanding throughout. The Diving Pool features a rather nasty person who inflicts suffering on others. The things they do made me feel nervous as I didn't see how this story could end with any sort of resolution, but then a few choice words spoken by another character just changed the whole pitch of the story and change it to give the story a shape and an suitable ending. The second Pregnancy Diary showed a subtle and gradual change in the stories narrator from acceptance of the demands and behaviour of their pregnant sister to disgust and revulsion. The real success of this story was how the transition occurred so subtle and graceful hardly being aware that perfectly normal annoyance and frustration were turning into resentment and disgust. The final story Dormitory was a pleasant enough story but I thought it was the weakest until I got to the last 4 pages when a few words again changed the whole tone of the story and I started to wonder if I had missed all the subtle clues that were pushing me to the intense and tragic conclusion I was reaching. I was a real pleasure to read these short stories and it is a real tribute to the author as well as the skills of the translator that the great subtly of the writing was preserved in translation.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing 5 Aug 2008
By ElmoBerry
Format:Hardcover
If you picked up 'The Diving Pool' because of it's promise to be disturbing, you won't be disappointed. I was expecting to be slightly horrific to read but it wasn't. In fact I sometimes found myself a little disinterested in the book, however within 10 minutes of having put the book down, I was compelled to pick it back up again. It wasn't that I particularly enjoyed the book, it's just that I HAD to finish it!! Very disconcerting. There's no murder, blood, gore etc, which is good because that really isn't the kind of book I'd be interested in, the horror takes place more in the reader's mind as you are privy to dark thoughts of the narrator. The scariest thing about the book is that sometimes you actually sympathise with the narrator and almost justify their actions/thoughts. Worrying, and definitely not a holiday read!!!
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