Coin Locker Babies
Front cover of the 1995 1st ed. English hardcover
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| Author | Ryu Murakami |
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| Original title | コインロッカー・ベイビーズ |
| Translator | Stephen Snyder |
| Cover artist | Manabu Yamanaka |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Postmodern novel |
| Publisher | Kodansha International (JPN) |
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Publication date
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1980 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 393 pp (English hardcover 1st edition, May 1995) |
| ISBN | (English hardcover 1st edition, May 1995) |
| OCLC | 32130835 |
| 895.6/35 20 | |
| LC Class | PL856.U696 K613 1995 |
Coin Locker Babies (コインロッカー・ベイビーズ Koinrokkā Beibīzu?), 1980, is a novel by Ryu Murakami about coin-operated-locker babies, translated into English by Stephen Snyder. The translation was published in 1995 by Kodansha (講談社 Kōdansha) International Ltd and republished in 2013 by Pushkin Press. A Bildungsroman novel, Coin Locker Babies is known for transcending genres, containing elements of social commentary, surrealism, dark comedy, philosophy, noir and horror in a cyberpunk setting.
It is the surreal story of two boys, Hashi and Kiku, who were both abandoned by their mothers during infancy and locked in coin lockers at a Tokyo train station in the summer of 1972. Both boys become wards of the Cherryfield Orphanage in Yokohama, where the tough and athletic Kiku comes to the defense of the slight, and often picked on, Hashi. They both experience difficulties, and are given mental treatment involving playing the sound of an in utero heartbeat to them, a sound they will later search for after having forgotten it.
They are adopted by foster parents, the Kuwayamas (the wife is Zainichi Korean) who live on an island off Kyushu. At the age of 16 both find themselves in a diseased urban wasteland in Tokyo named Toxitown. Hashi, whose voice has a profound effect on those who hear it, becomes a bisexual rock star, employed by an eccentric producer named D. Hashi falls in love with his (female) manager Neva and they marry. Kiku becomes a pole vaulter and with his girlfriend Anemone, a model who has converted her condo into a swamp for her crocodile, searches for a substance named DATURA in order to take his revenge upon the city of Tokyo and destroy it. Along the way, however, in a search for Hashi's real mother, D finds a woman and arranges a meeting with Hashi on live television. Kiku watches and sees Hashi break down, and goes to help, but ends up shooting the woman, who is actually his own mother. He is sentenced to five years in prison.
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