The Graveyard Apartment

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike (translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm
On Sale October 11, 2016 by Thomas Dunne Books (originally published in 1986)
Rating: ★★★★

A large, modern apartment conveniently located in metro Tokyo. It's surrounded by a graveyard, a crematorium, and a Buddhist temple-- but the price to die for.

Misao and Teppei are married and have a young daughter, but in ways their happiness, and the very legitimacy of their relationship, is marred by a tragedy involving Teppei's first wife. They buy an apartment in a brand-new luxury building, proud to finally have a space that's truly "theirs." Their new home is spacious and affordable, but the graveyard view from the balcony is a bit unsettling. Almost from the start, strange things start to happen inside their new building, and most of it centers around the basement, which is only accessible by an elevator that stops working at the most inopportune times. This book definitely relies on the slow burn to create tension and horror. The pace doesn't really pick up until the end, when it's make or break the Kano family.

I do wonder if some elements of this book get lost in (cultural) translation. What happens to Teppei's first wife is mentioned so frequently, I became convinced it would tie into rest of the plot, but, no, nothing. And just the detail of what happened to her, on it's own, does not add an aura of eeriness or suspense to American audiences. There are suggestions that the freaky happenings inside the apartment building are connected to a city planning project from the 1960's, but I never fully understood why. I can't decide if the subtlety of this book is frustrating or refreshing. 3.5 stars.