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Sympathy Tower Tokyo
Sympathy Tower Tokyo: The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon | Rie Qudan
4 posts | 3 read | 1 reading | 1 to read
The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon. A propulsive, prophetic novel about the beauty of language and the nature of identity in the age of AI. Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of a radical sympathy toward criminals has become the norm and a grand skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house wrongdoers in compassionate comfort Sympathy Tower Tokyo. Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city's new centrepiece, but is riven by doubt. Haunted by a terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might inherently disagree with the values of the project, which should be the pinnacle of her career. As Sara grapples with these conflicting emotions, her relationship with her gorgeous and much younger boyfriend grows increasingly strained. In search of solace, in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot... Awarded Japan's highest literary prize, Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an extraordinary novel from one of the most exciting new voices in world literature. Partly inspired by conversations with an artificial intelligence, it offers an extraordinary defence of the power of language written by humans, a touching exploration of the imaginative impulse, and an often hilarious send up of our modern world's unrelenting conformity. 'Stuns and illuminates. Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an ode to language and possibility and the ongoing question of how to be in an ever-changing world.' Bryan Washington, author of Memorial 'A brilliantly ambitious struggle and mediation on language, thought and existence. A wondrous book', Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
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review
BarbaraBB
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Pickpick

This book is wild. An architect has won a competition for designing a tower in Tokyo for prisoners, for whom we need to feel sympathy, cause aren‘t we all human beings? She feels conflicted about this, consults AI and a younger boyfriend and it‘s all pretty meta but so Japanese and I devoured it!

Thank you Helen, for sending me this one!

📸Teshima Art Island, Japan

CarolynM I‘m enjoying your photos of Japan. Hope you‘re having a wonderful time💕 1w
squirrelbrain I‘m glad you liked it after all! I was very worried when Holly @Hooked_on_books bailed on it! 1w
LeahBergen I can‘t believe how much you are able to read on holiday! I‘m always so tired out from sightseeing. 😆 1w
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BarbaraBB @CarolynM Thank you! I am having the best of times ❤️ 1w
BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Hooked_on_books It‘s VERY Japanese. A lot about language and the characters they use for Japanese and ‘borrowed‘ words. As I am learning Japanese this was fascinating to me but I can imagine it being not that interesting if you aren‘t into the language 1w
BarbaraBB @LeahBergen Me too but I read while traveling and I hardly sleep (due to the jet lag). Also, I brought thin books! 1w
Hooked_on_books @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain I also tried the audio and wonder if that made a difference. Though quite frankly, I‘m not sure this would work for me in print. 😂 I‘m so glad you liked it, Barbara! 1w
LeahBergen Thin books are the best for travelling 👍 1w
Cathythoughts Great photo. Stacking book 👍🏻♥️ 7d
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review
Hooked_on_books
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Bailedbailed

I was grabbed by the cover of this and went in blind. Early on, it seemed like it was going to be an exploration of language, but at the halfway point it‘s doing nothing for me, so I‘m out.

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stretchkev
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Pickpick

A thought-provoking novel that uses generative AI not as focus but as a lens on language, identity, and culture. Qudan contrasts AI‘s fluid speech with human complexity, raising questions about meaning, and control. Beneath its forward-looking themes lie conservative undercurrents, especially in characters‘ views on language and justice. The result is a meditation on how even radical ideas remain rooted in tradition.

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vlwelser
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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 3mo
32 likes1 stack add1 comment