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Earthlings (Paperback)
Sayaka Murata; Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
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R266
Discovery Miles 2 660
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY, INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Mind-blowing, twisted and wildly entertaining, Earthlings asks: how
far would you go just to be yourself? As a child, Natsuki believed
she was an alien, a different species to her earthling family and
classmates. She hoped a spaceship would come down and take her
home. Now, she lives quietly in an asexual marriage, pretending to
be normal. But the buried horrors of Natsuki's past are pursuing
her. As she flees the suburbs for the Nagano mountains and a
reunion with her beloved cousin Yuu, she wonders, what will it take
to escape the earthlings?
From the author of international bestseller Convenience Store Woman
comes a collection of short fiction: weird, out of this world and
like nothing you've read before. An engaged couple falls out over
the husband's dislike of clothes and objects made from human
materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the
curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by
eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the
first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story that
first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: 'A Clean
Marriage', which tells the story of a happily asexual couple who
must submit to some radical medical procedures if they are to
conceive a longed-for child. Mixing taboo-breaking body horror with
feminist revenge fables, old ladies who love each other and young
women finding empathy and transformation in unlikely places, Life
Ceremony is a wild ride to the outer edges of one of the most
original minds in contemporary fiction.
Meet Keiko. Keiko is 36 years old. She's never had a boyfriend, and
she's been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years.
Keiko's family wishes she'd get a proper job. Her friends wonder
why she won't get married. But Keiko knows what makes her happy,
and she's not going to let anyone come between her and her
convenience store...
- CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN COMES IN THREE:
- DIFFERENT COLOURS
- THE COLOUR YOU RECEIVE WILL BE CHOSEN AT RANDOM
The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the
cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love,
heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human
existenceWith 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.
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Earthlings (Paperback)
Sayaka Murata; Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
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R487
R401
Discovery Miles 4 010
Save R86 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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From the beloved author of cult sensation Convenience Store Woman,
which has now sold more than one million copies worldwide and has
been translated into thirty-three languages, comes a spellbinding
and otherworldly novel about a woman who believes she is an alien
Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman was one of the most unusual
and refreshing bestsellers of recent years, depicting the life of a
thirty-six-year-old clerk in a Tokyo convenience store. Now, in
Earthlings, Sayaka Murata pushes at the boundaries of our ideas of
social conformity in this brilliantly imaginative, intense, and
absolutely unforgettable novel. As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in
with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend
is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells
her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special
quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her
family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden
house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be
an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like
everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with
her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from
her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society
for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening
mysteries of the universe--answers only Natsuki has the power to
uncover. Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and
wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling
world, and cements Sayaka Murata's status as a master chronicler of
the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.
Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award Longlisted for the
Believer Book Award Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in
Translation A Los Angeles Times Bestseller The English-language
debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling
660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a
bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a
single woman who fits into the rigidity of its work culture only
too well. The English-language debut of one of Japan's most
talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there,
Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of
thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never
fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age
of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of "Smile
Mart," she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store,
unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social
interaction--many are laid out line by line in the store's
manual--and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and
speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person
excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at
the store for eighteen years. It's almost hard to tell where the
store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people
close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly
pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career,
prompting her to take desperate action... A brilliant depiction of
an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store
Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture
and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely
fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.
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Earthlings (Hardcover)
Sayaka Murata; Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
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R666
R544
Discovery Miles 5 440
Save R122 (18%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
From the beloved author of cult sensation Convenience Store Woman,
which has now sold more than one million copies worldwide and has
been translated into thirty-three languages, comes a spellbinding
and otherworldly novel about a woman who believes she is an alien
Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman was one of the most unusual
and refreshing bestsellers of recent years, depicting the life of a
thirty-six-year-old clerk in a Tokyo convenience store. Now, in
Earthlings, Sayaka Murata pushes at the boundaries of our ideas of
social conformity in this brilliantly imaginative, intense, and
absolutely unforgettable novel. As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in
with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend
is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells
her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special
quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her
family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden
house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be
an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like
everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with
her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from
her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society
for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening
mysteries of the universe--answers only Natsuki has the power to
uncover. Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and
wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling
world, and cements Sayaka Murata's status as a master chronicler of
the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.
From Renoir to Monet to Gauguin – French Impressionism was not
only appreciated by Western collectors at the beginning of the 20th
century – it also found an early following in Japan. In 2022, on
the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the Museum Folkwang will
show its outstanding post-impressionist collection founded by Karl
Ernst Osthaus (1874–1921). The museum collection will be
supplemented by Impressionist highlights from the Kojiro Matsukata
Collection (1865–1950), which laid the foundation for the
National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. This is the first time
this collection will be presented comprehensively outside Japan
since the 1950s. The catalog features a unique compilation of about
120 works and introduces two important collectors. Transnational
collection history is combined with modern masterpieces. Featuring
paintings, drawings and sculptures by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin,
Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir and Auguste Rodin, among others, as well as a new
installation by Tabaimo and Chiharu Shiota and a selection of East
Asian works from the former holdings of Matsukata and Osthaus.
Accompanied by a short story by Japanese bestselling author Sayaka
Murata.
An immeasurably influential female voice in post-war Japanese
literature, Kono writes with a strange and disorienting beauty: her
tales are marked by disquieting scenes, her characters all
teetering on the brink of self-destruction. In the famous title
story, the protagonist loathes young girls but compulsively buys
expensive clothes for little boys so that she can watch them dress
and undress. Taeko Kono's detached gaze at these events is
transfixing: What are we hunting for? And why? Kono rarely gives
the reader straightforward answers, rather reflecting, subverting
and examining their expectations, both of what women are capable
of, and of the narrative form itself.
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