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  • Published: 3 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781787304727
  • Imprint: Harvill Secker
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00

Seesaw Monster




Two inventive tales of espionage in one, from the internationally bestselling author of Japanese fiction sensation Bullet Train

'Fascinating and thought provoking with some genuine surprises and incredibly clever ideas that kept me thinking about it long after I finished it… a Japanese Black Mirror!' Ajay Chowdhury, author of The Waiter

Some mother-in-laws are hard. This one might be murder.

Miyako suspects her mother-in-law is a murderer. It’s not just a case of them rubbing each other up the wrong way – there is definitely something suspicious going on. But Miyako isn’t exactly what she seems either. Her husband has no idea about her past life as a secret agent. When she decides to use her professional skills to investigate her mother-in-law, the delicate equilibrium of their lives is thrown wildly out of balance.

Many decades later, in a future world where electronic communication has been irrevocably compromised, confidential messages must be delivered by trusted couriers like Mito. But one delivery pulls Mito into a conspiracy beyond his wildest imaginings, and forces him into a race against time to defeat a world-changing technological threat.

Seesaw Monster contains two sharp, thrilling linked novellas - SEESAW MONSTER and SPIN MONSTER - from the bestselling and multi-award-winning writer Kotaro Isaka, internationally celebrated for his offbeat humour and inventive talent for twists.

PRAISE FOR KOTARO ISAKA:

‘Unlike anything you're likely to have read before . . . white-hot with double-crosses’ Financial Times

‘Entertaining . . . high-speed . . . with lots of twists and turns’ The Times

‘Thoroughly enjoyable’ Guardian

  • Published: 3 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781787304727
  • Imprint: Harvill Secker
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00

About the author

Kotaro Isaka

Kotaro Isaka is a bestselling and multi-award-wining writer who is published around the world. He has won the Shincho Mystery Club Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan Booksellers’ Award and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize and twelve of his books have been adapted for film or TV. Kotaro Isaka is a bestselling and multi-award-winning writer who is published around the world. He has won the Shincho Mystery Club Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan Booksellers' Award and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize and twelve of his books have been adapted for film or TV. He is the author of the internationall bestseller Bullet Train.

Also by Kotaro Isaka

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Praise for Seesaw Monster

Thoroughly enjoyable

Guardian, on BULLET TRAIN

Unlike anything you're likely to have read before...white-hot with double-crosses

Financial Times, on BULLET TRAIN

Entertaining...high-speed...with lots of twists and turns...it has a Tarantino-meets-the-Coen-Brothers feel to it

The Times, on BULLET TRAIN

An offbeat but touching thriller, with a wonderful final twist

Mail on Sunday, on THE MANTIS

Isaka’s exceptional latest combines the author’s flair for violent comic farce with an unsettling look at the near future. Isaka’s talent for kinetic, hilarious carnage is on full display, and it’s fortified with philosophical depth and surprisingly potent ruminations on the nature of fate. This ranks among the author’s best

Publishers Weekly

Fascinating and thought provoking with some genuine surprises and incredibly clever ideas that kept me thinking about it long after I finished it… a Japanese Black Mirror!

Ajay Chowdhury, author of THE WAITER