Thanks to a Japanese follower on Twitter we have been alerted to Death Sentences, a novel by Kawamata Chiaki, translated by Thomas Lamarre and Kazuko Y. Behrens. and published by the University of Minnesota. There’s a review in Publishers Weekly. The book was originally published in 1984, but has only just found its way into English. Given that it features a cult devoted to potentially deadly poetry, we are definitely interested. For more about the author, see the SF Encyclopedia.