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Peter Tasker was born in 1955 in Swansea, Wales. He has a degree in english literature from Oxford University and studied law at the College of Law. He moved to Tokyo in early 1983 to become financial analyst for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, and was voted top market analyst by Japanese investors for five years in a row. In 1998, he founded Arcus Investment, a London-based money management company and in 2000 he became a director of Paris Miki, Japan’s largest retailer of spectacles.
His first book on Japanese culture, Inside Japan, was published in 1987. He continued writing nonfiction books until 1992, when his first fiction novel, Silent Thunder, was published to rave reviews. Mr. Tasker followed-up with the much acclaimed Buddha Kiss in 1997 and Samurai Boogie in 1999. Mr. Tasker has often been compared to Elmore Leonard and Tom Clancy and he has been praised as "one of the smartest writers in the genre" by Publishers Weekly. In addition to his work as a financial analyst and author, Mr. Tasker is a widely respected political and financial commentator and writes a regular column for Newsweek Japan. He has also written articles for publications including The Economist, Financial Times, New Statesman, The Independent, and The Wall Street Journal.
Dragon Dance
The year is 2006. Global recession is spreading and Japan is sunk in economic and social crisis. While Japan is weakening, China is growing ever stronger. A secret group headed by an aged war hero plots to destabilize relations between Japan and the United States in order to strengthen China's position in Asia and ultimately to achieve world hegemony. Once considered one of the safest cities in the world, Tokyo is plagued by a rising crime rate, regular security alerts, and increased homelessness and poverty. Riding on an unprecedented wave of popular opinion and political support, ultranationalist celebrity politician Tsuyoshi Nozawa campaigns to break the military alliance with the U.S. and make Japan a nuclear power. While closely following Nozawa's progress, journalist Martine Meyer receives mysterious emails predicting fatal "accidents" and begins to suspect a conspiracy. As she struggles to deal with a pompous new bureau chief and begins to realize that her love affair with microbrewery owner Makoto is on the verge of either blossoming or wilting, Martine finds herself drawn into a sinister web of events that lead her ultimately face-to-face with the barrel of a terrorist's gun.
Peter Tasker's Summer Reading List
Tishomongo Blues
by Elmore Leonard
This one I’ve been saving up for the summer, confident it will be a good companion to me. The set-up appears to be a killing witnessed by a stunt-diver on a high-dive platform, which is already a great idea. I love the sheer panache of his writing, the way he just leaves out plot contrivances and descriptions and other tiresome novelistic stuff. What you’re left with is the vision and the people and the prose, which is now so boiled-down it’s almost lyrical.
Cosi Fan Tutti
by Michael Dibdin
My fiction is set in Japan, where I’ve spent the past two decades. Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen series of detective novels is set in Italy, and I’m in awe of the way he gets inside the culture and the characters. Zen himself is a classic creation – washed-up, mother-fixated, not very brave, and yet with strong moral instincts. The sense of place is so strong you can almost smell the pasta sauce simmering away in his pan.
The Consolation of Philosophy
by Alain de Botton
De Botton is a young writer who has a great talent for presenting big ideas in a quirky self-deprecating way, while still doing them justice. "How Proust Can Change Your Life" was great fun, not something often said of a work about the French master. In The Consolation of Philosophy, he does the same thing for Plato, Aristotle, and other savants. This is one for dipping into after dinner, preferably with a good brandy to aid the mental processes.
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t read anything by Atwood yet, but the theme, of the future of humanity in the new era of "life sciences", sounds absolutely compelling. "The Elementary Particles", by the French writer Michel Houellebecq, is a shockingly provocative treatment of the same theme. I’m looking forward to the more literary treatment in Atwood’s new novel, which will soon be rushed across the Pacific to me in a cardboard box.
Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, And What Makes Us Human
by Matt Ridley
Ridley, former science editor of The Economist magazine, is a brilliant expositor of the latest scientific thinking in evolutionary biology and other related fields. He has a wide range of literary and cultural reference, and, unlike some others in the field, never comes across as either polemical or condescendingly populist. Here he explores the age-old nature/nurture debate, giving due weight to both sides. This one should be tackled without the brandy.
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