Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Devil's Prayer BookAuthor: Yumeno Kyūsaku
| Original Title | 悪魔祈祷書 |
|---|---|
| Author | 夢野 久作 |
| Genre | Detective & Mystery |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a dimly lit used bookstore shrouded by summer rain, a garrulous shopkeeper entertains a visiting professor with rambling tales between tobacco-stained chuckles. His Kansai-accented monologue weaves through anecdotes of literary treasures and cunning thieves—students pilfering pages, academics employing "elegant" shoplifting methods, and a medical student’s ancestral Bible that may hold unspeakable secrets. The conversation pivots to a cursed tome: a hand-copied 17th-century manuscript allegedly rewriting scripture as a manifesto for scientific amorality and devil worship, its pages lost under mysterious circumstances. As thunder rattles the shelves, the bookseller’s folksy charm darkens into psychological chess—hinting at poisoned wives, vanished children, and the professor’s own complicity. Shadows lengthen around their game of half-truths until the rain clears, leaving only the cloying aftertaste of a confession: every whispered horror was fiction spun for profit. This labyrinthine exchange blurs reality and deception, inviting readers into a world where dusty pages hold both enlightenment and damnation, and no transaction is ever merely about books. |
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