A darkly satirical tale of the generation and gender gaps in Japanese society, Ruy Murakami's Popular Hits of the Showa Era is a literary karaoke act combining manga and street culture

It's a set-up like a video game: two rival gangs fight to death for the control of a Tokyo district. In one gang, six young losers committed only to drinking, voyeurism and karaoke singing, in the other six tough independent older women. From ambush to revenge, both groups are gradually decimated until the ultimate showdown. In Murakami's inimitably brutal and brilliant style, Popular Hits dissects the gender and generational conflicts of contemporary society in a hilarious satire.

Murakami is mercilessly funny as he tracks his characters' evolution from twits to scholars of guerrilla warfare'New Yorker

'One of the funniest and strangest gang wars in recent literature'Booklist