Abstract

Nominated for 2023 Shūgorō Yamamoto Prize!
Highly cinematic, action-packed adventure!

“This left me in the same shock I felt when reading Genocidal Organ and The City & the City. What stands in the way of our future is neither a virus nor a weapon of mass destruction. The novel warns against introspective extinction—this is what gives those of us gasping for air in modern society mass trauma. The silver lining is that a rising star has now made his mark in these suffocating times—and his ideas may help propel us into the future.” – Hideo Kojima, video game creator, of Metal Gear, Death Stranding, and more

In the near future, the global community responds to the genocidal crimes of a nation by “erasing” it from history, building a new country in its place. Twenty years later, World Existence Organization investigator Alfonso Navarro is sent to the young nation of Ignorabimus to look into a peculiar disease affecting local children, and to find a stolen bioweapon used by the former government.
Through interviews with the troubled children and a hunt for the terrorists seeking to unleash their antinatalist attack against Ignorabimus, the hardboiled protagonist slowly discovers that he seeks more from life than just survival. Presenting prescient social commentary alongside cinematic, action-packed scenes, the masterfully crafted novel probes into questions of identity, culture, history and the value of hope in a post-pandemic world.

Author’s Information

Akira Ogido is a 29-year-old writer from Tokyo. Graduating from Waseda University’s School of Culture, Media and Society, he worked various jobs while pursuing writing. He won the Shincho Mystery Prize in 2020 for his debut novel Gisho no tori wa tsukamaranai. With the release of his second novel Loop of the cord, Ogido is quickly making his name as one of the most exciting new voices in Japanese literature.