The Final Yen

1989, Tokyo. A young American businessman is facing a prison sentence for a crime he did not commit. In a system where 99% of all accused are convicted, how can he find his way back to freedom? After moving to Japan on a quest for cultural insight, the narrator finds a job as an Advertising Representative at a Japanese publishing company, and he excels. Rising through the ranks, he soon finds himself face to face with executives at the height of Japanese corporate power. The economic "war" against America is raging. But the xenophobia and social pressures of Tokyo prove too much. He quits his job and makes plans to return to California. However, on a final night out with business associates a sign outside a hostess bar is knocked over, explodes, and starts a fire. The narrator is accused of vandalism and causing the fire. His business associates lie about the incident, and the American Embassy won't help him. Prison seems inevitable... Under surveillance, in the midst of the investigation, the narrator must outwit the police and flee from Japan. Are the police watching too closely for him to escape?

About the Author :
R. Sebastian Bennett was born in New York City and grew up in California. He attended Columbia University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he was awarded a Doctoral Regents Fellowship. Bennett worked as an Advertising Representative in Tokyo in the late 1980s. Later, he founded the literary journal, THE SOUTHERN ANTHOLOGY and taught Fiction Writing at UCLA, University of Louisiana, and Muskingum University, where he directed the Creative Writing Program. Bennett's work is widely published in magazines, including The Brooklyn Review, Columbia Journal, Fiction International, Los Angeles Review, New World Writing, Paris Transcontinental-Sorbonne (FRANCE), The Bombay Review and Modern Literature (INDIA), The Galway Review (IRELAND), Alécart (ROMANIA), and Equus (ENGLAND), and many others.

Review :
"Clever, insightful and beautifully written ... Mr. Bennett knows his Japanese characters as well as he knows his American hero, and THE FINAL YEN is a book both charming and moving." -T. Coraghessan Boyle, Author of EAST IS EAST and OUTSIDE LOOKING IN "In the context of a compelling story, R. Sebastian Bennett demystifies much of the modern Japanese social insularity and business philosophy, while engaging readers in a seriocomical narrative of a youthful, American 'salaryman' in Tokyo. This is simultaneously a book about Japan, and about American ideals of independence and intellectual freedom. THE FINAL YEN is smart, witty, and informative." -Harold Jaffe, Author of REVOLUTIONARY BRAIN and PARIS 60; Editor of Fiction International