Sayaka Murata

That's the million-dollar question.

We are going to look at three incredibly distinct voices who map the modern city: Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, and Sayaka Murata.

Let's start with Murakami.

Most Western readers know Murakami for his magical realism: talking cats, twin moons, mysterious wells.

Which sets us up perfectly for our third modern Tokyo author, who takes the concept of urban survival and strips it down to its most extreme fluorescent reality.

Fluorescent is the perfect word.

Sayaka Murata and her two thousand sixteen novel, Convenience Store Woman.

Enter Keiko Furukura.

Let's get into it.

First, we have Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata clocking in at 192 pages.

Such a brilliant, unique book.

So the description tells us about a 36-year-old woman in Tokyo who spent her entire life never seeming to fit into conventional societal expectations.

[upbeat music] This is The Big Story from Wired.

You're listening to Sayaka Murata Inhabits a Planet of Her Own, written by Thu Huong Ha, originally published on August 25th, 2022.

The novelist makes the earthly rituals of sex, marriage, childbirth, and all of human life appear delightfully outlandish.

By the time I meet Sayaka Murata on a recent afternoon in June, the back of my linen dress is damp.

It's an oppressively humid summer day in Tokyo, the sun hidden by a thick blanket of gray, and we're taking a stroll at the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a one-hundred-sixteen-year-old park that becomes dense with crowds during the sakura blossom.

Today, visitors are sparse.

yeah right this is what they feel So the sentence is...

Is this sentence from Hunchback by Sao Ichikawa? All the Lovers in the Night by Miko Kawakami or Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.

I'm really sorry if I'm butchering this pronunciation, but like, yeah.

Good.

I think a lot of Japanese translated fiction fits perfectly into this.

Sayaka Murata is a pretty prolific author of freaky books and Convenience Store Woman and Life Ceremony are two that I've read by her that I think fit perfectly.

All the Lovers in the Night by Miyako Kawakami, Vladimir by Julia Mae Jones, The New Me by Halle Butler, Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder.

My Husband by Maud Ventura.