From the award-winning director and NYT bestselling author of If Cats Disappeared from the World, the thrilling novelization of his hit film Exit 8, adapting the indie game of the same name.
 
A young man is commuting on a packed Tokyo subway, when he receives a phone call from his ex, with life-changing news. As he hurries off the train and through the station to join her, the call drops, no signal. Suddenly, reality shifts. He can’t find the exit. Each time he passes through sterile corridors, silent except for his own footsteps, he discovers himself back at the beginning, going past the same advertisements, locked closets, coin-operated photo booth, and, disturbingly, the same man, who never responds to him. His desperation increases, but a sign on the wall reveals the rules he must follow in order to escape:

Do not overlook any anomalies.
If you find an anomaly, turn back immediately.
If you do not find any anomalies, do not turn back.
Go out through Exit 8.

As he stumbles through this endless loop, its only variations the bizarre terrors he is forced to endure, he finds himself confronting the traumas and disappointments of his past, and staring down the crossroads of his future. But as he falls deeper and deeper into this seemingly inescapable new reality, Exit 8 has never felt further away—unless, perhaps, anomalies are not things to be feared but to be embraced. Will he ever escape, and what lies on the other side?
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Genki Kawamura was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1979. In 2012, he published his first novel, If Cats Disappeared from the World, which has been translated into thirty-five languages and sold more than three million copies worldwide. His other books include One Hundred Flowers, The Horse and I, and Whispering Rooms, which he coauthored with Marie Kondo. In 2022, Kawamura became the first Japanese filmmaker to receive the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. In 2025, his second feature film, Exit 8, inspired by a cult video game, was chosen as an Official Selection at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.