Death Sentences is a genre bending, page turner of a book that is impossible to fit into a box of any kind. Part hard boil detective, part literary survey of the surrealist movement, part dystopian science fiction, part thriller, all tied together by a Ring like plot device that is somehow incredibly readable.

The Ring like plot device is a surrealist poem written by a mysterious and young poet just after the War Paris named Hu Mei (Who May). Who May is poet that embodies the surrealist movement, he is described as accomplishing feats of genius with his poetry that impresses and unnerves leaders within the surrealist movement. His long absences only add to his mystic and intrigue with his work. His last poem "the Gold of Time" is so devastating to the readers it leads to their insanity and an untimely death.

The poem is linked to a series of a litany of suspicious actual deaths of artist, poets, and writers within the surrealist movement. Eventually the poem is forgotten, buried in the past along with the surrealists. But sees a reemergence in 1980s Japan where it finds a new readership. It begins to reach a wider circulation, leaving death in its wake. The thriller and more gruesome aspects of the book come from the efforts to eliminate this poems threat to society. The means of which by the secret police and soldiers use to eradicate this new plague are brutal, without mercy, and not enough. Words travel faster than any amount of bullets can stop.

Surprisingly this book works. Kawamata pulls it all together in a very fun ad readable way that I devoured in a couple of days. By no means is a great work of literature but it is a fun literary thriller with some sci-fi elements that kept the pages moving. As an added bonus learned some surrealist artist names and went a little morbid in a deep dive into their lives and often strange deaths. ( )