Sympathy Tower Tokyo

A PROPHETIC JAPANESE BESTSELLER.

You are looking at Japan of the near future, where radical empathy toward criminals has become the standard rule. Now they are being given a gigantic residential complex—“Sympathy Tower Tokyo”: a skyscraper in the very heart of the metropolis. Famous architect Sara Makina is tasked with designing the city’s new central district, but the project starts to raise more and more anxiety and doubts. Torn between conflicting feelings, Sara’s romance with a dazzling—and noticeably younger—partner gradually becomes a source of tension. Searching for support and momentum for her work, Sara begins to trust her thoughts to an all-knowing AI chat bot…

Awarded one of Japan’s major literary prizes, “Sympathy Tower Tokyo” is an engrossing novel by one of today’s most unusual authors. Inspired in part by conversations with artificial intelligence, it blends human irony, a subtle meditation on the nature of creativity, and a satire of the ruthless conformity of our time.