First published 2022
In these twelve stories, Sayaka Murata upends social conventions with dark humor and unsettling insight. A couple's wedding is threatened by their differing views on using the dead. A jealous tent watches a child's first kiss. Murata's characters are strange in their normalcy, living in a world that is disturbingly abnormal. Though set in modern Japan, the future, or an alternate reality, these stories expose the fragile humanity beneath society's rigid rules.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, dark-fantasy
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-humor, unsettling-insight
Setting: Japan
Period: Modern, Future, Alternate-Reality
266 pages · Paperback · Granta Books