With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader’s interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In “A First-Rate Material”, Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can’t stand the conventional use of deceased people’s bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. “Lovers on the Breeze” is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child’s bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. “Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

Yazar:

Sayaka Murata

Türler:

Hikaye (Öykü)

Tahmini Okuma Süresi: 7 sa. 15 dk.Sayfa Sayısı: 256İlk Yayın Tarihi: 5 Temmuz 2022Yayınevi: Grove Press

Dil: İngilizce

Benzer Kitaplar

Tümünü Gör

Reklam

Kitap İstatistikleri

195gösterim

Yazar Hakkında

Sayaka MurataYazar · 4 kitap

1979 yılında Inzai, Japonya’da doğdu. Ortaokulu Inzai’de tamamladıktan sonra ailesiyle Tokyo’ya taşındı. İlk romanı Jyunyü ile 2001 Gunzo Ödülü’nü kazandı. 2013 yılında Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no kitabıyla Mishima Yukio Ödülü’ne layık görüldü. 2016 yılında onuncu romanı Konbini Ningen (Kasiyer) ile Akutagawa Ödülü’nü kazandı. Kasiyer, Japonya’da 600 binden fazla sattı ve 2018 yılında Convenience Store Woman adıyla İngilizceye çevrildi. Kitaplarında cinsiyet rollerine, ebeveynliğe ve toplumdaki uyumsuz tiplere odaklanan Sayaka Murata, yazarlığın yanı sıra Tokyo’da yarı zamanlı kasiyerlik yapmaktadır.