Author(s): Sayaka Murata

Fiction | Marianne's Book Talkers

Mind blowing, dark and wild, the new novel from Sayaka Murata - author of bestseller Convenience Store Woman - asks: how far would you go just to be yourself?

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu.

Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: MARIANNE

I was a huge fan of Murata’s English debut, Convenience Store Woman, so I came to Earthlings with high expectations – happily, it did not disappoint!

Whereas Convenience Store Woman delights in the constraints of the social contract, Earthlings rebels against what’s expected and what’s polite and what’s “normal” at every turn. In fact, the whole premise of the book is the question, how far would you go to be who you really are?

The answer – by turns reasonable, and then extreme – culminates in a truly zany caper that pushes the boundaries of… pretty much everything. A wild ride!