Editorial Content for Earthlings
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EARTHLINGS is a curious novel --- quaint and quirky at the start, then increasingly bizarre and frightening right up until its horrific and unbelievable end. With sparse language and sharp social commentary, masterfully translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Sayaka Murata skewers the trappings of modern life and introduces readers to an innocent pushed to the very edge of sanity.
As a child, Natsuki Sasamoto is only happy during her family’s annual visit to Akishina during the Obon festival. There she is in the company of her aunts, uncles and cousins in the natural mountain beauty that surrounds her grandparents’ home, and the abuse she suffers at the hands of her mother and older sister fades (for just a bit) into the background. Most wonderfully, time in Akishina is time with Yuu, her beloved cousin.
"Not quite experimental, but drawing on some postmodern themes and devices, EARTHLINGS is heartrending, resonant and unforgettable."
Yuu is an alien, or so he believes, a condition of dislocation and strangeness to which Natsuki can relate, not in the least because her best friend is Piyyut, an alien from Planet Popinpobopia in the disguise of a stuffed hedgehog. Piyyut has given Natsuki some small magical powers, and Yuu shows her much-needed kindness and acceptance, but none of it can protect her from the dangers at home or the violence she endures at the hands of one of her teachers.
As she grows up, Natsuki finds herself under immense pressure from the Factory, the social norms that demand she get married and start a family, allowing herself to become a cog in the social machine and a slave to her genes and reproductive organs.
As an adult, Natsuki marries Tomoya, a shy man whose familial traumas are only hinted at. Tomoya shares with Natsuki a distrust of the Factory and a revulsion of physical intimacy. Their platonic marriage is one of convenience and reserved friendship. When Natsuki takes Tomoya to Akishina, where Yuu now lives in their grandparents’ home, it is the first time the cousins have seen each other since their behavior sent shockwaves through the family. At first, Yuu seems hesitant to resume talk of aliens and their childish vows. But as the days go by, the trio decide to abandon all connections to the Factory and embrace their alien identities until other members of the Sasamoto family find them in an unimaginable state. Has Popinpobopia finally called the three home, or have they willingly shed their humanity with no safety net or promise of redemption?
As a story, EARTHLINGS packs a brutal punch and delivers several shocks. But as an examination of a character, it is still charming and delightful because Natsuki remains steadfastly herself: emotionally severed and physically traumatized, yet wide-eyed and imaginative with a sweet and genuine affection for Yuu, if for no one else. The novel starts out weird and gets weirder and much darker as it goes on, taking readers to totally unexpected places, but never letting them forget who the villains and innocents are and how responsible society is for letting those innocents down. The depravity that Murata explores runs the gamut from the sadly mundane to the absolutely phenomenal, and still her delivery is deadpan and not without moments of bleak humor.
Not quite experimental, but drawing on some postmodern themes and devices, EARTHLINGS is heartrending, resonant and unforgettable.
Teaser
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.
Promo
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.
About the Book
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 33 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 36-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.
Audiobook available, read by Nancy Wu
