Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (English) Hardcover Book

Description: Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori 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 FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description 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 Muratas 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 doesnt 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 cant 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 Muratas status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe. Author Biography Sayaka Murata is the author of many books, including Convenience Store Woman, winner of the Akutagawa Prize. Murata has been named a Freemans "Future of New Writing" author, and a Vogue Japan Woman of the Year.Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated works by more than a dozen Japanese writers, including Ryu Murakami. She lives at the foot of a mountain in Eastern Japan. Review Praise for Earthlings: A New York Times Book Review Editors ChoiceNamed a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, TIME and Literary HubNamed a Most Anticipated Book by the New York Times, TIME, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, the Guardian, Vulture, Wired, Literary Hub, Bustle, Popsugar, and Refinery29"To Sayaka Murata, nonconformity is a slippery slope . . . Reminiscent of certain excellent folk tales, expressionless prose is Muratas trademark . . . In Earthlings, being an alien is a simple proxy for being alienated. The characters define themselves not by a specific notion of what they are--other--but by a general idea of what they are not: humans/breeders . . . The strength of [Muratas] voice lies in the faux-naïf lens through which she filters her dark view of humankind: We earthlings are sad, truncated bots, shuffling through the world in a dream of confusion."--Lydia Millet, New York Times Book Review"What does it mean to feel at home in the world? Natskui, the protagonist of this startling novel, doesnt know: from a young age, shes convinced that she has been contacted by aliens who will take her away from a middle-class Japanese life marked by cruelty . . . Murata takes a childlike idea and holds onto it with imaginative fervor, brilliantly exposing the callousness and arbitrariness of convention."--New Yorker"Shocking, hilarious, and hugely, darkly entertaining. Murata has crafted an unforgettable, original hybrid of absurd fantasy and stark realism."--Financial Times"A strange and dreamlike story of a young girl who comes to believe shes an alien."--USA Today"As in Convenience Store Woman, Murata displays her gift for scrambling notions of utopia and dystopia to propulsive effect--only this time, her characters are convinced that theyre rebelling, not conforming . . . Murata manages what her characters cannot: She transcends societys core values, to dizzying effect. As Earthlings swerves into violent, transgressive, fantastical territory, Murata--ever the good scientist--keeps us in thrall by never putting her thumb on the scale. Her matter-of-fact rendering of wild events is as disorienting as it is intriguing."--Stephanie Hayes, Atlantic"If youre in the mood for weird, Sayaka Murata is always a reliable place to turn . . . [Earthlings] centers on Natsuki, a character whose story begins in childhood with her cousin in the mountains and spirals ever more darkly (and bizarrely) into adulthood and its many strange reckonings. This is a story thats best not to spoil, but it will get into your head."--Seattle Times "A frequently disturbing but pacy read, with its own off-key humor."--Guardian"Horrifyingly bizarre and wildly transcendent . . . A powerfully good read."--Yvonne C. Garrett, Brooklyn Rail"A methodical descent into a very special, almost rational kind of madness . . . About far more than the endless trauma of fitting in. Its a story about the mental gymnastics that lead us to strange and unearthly places in order to survive . . . Horror is often a mirror for things wed rather not see, and sci-fi often a vehicle to places wed rather be. Murata marries elements of both into one meticulous journey to the heart of human psychology."--Alexis Ong, Tor.com"Its the books visceral, grim savagery, and those final shocking pages, that makes this such a vital, powerful novel . . . Earthlings is the sort of challenging, confronting fiction that wakes you up with a jolt and leaves a lasting impression."--Ian Mond, Locus"A sharp interrogation of the way our brains and bodies react to trauma and to feeling other that forces anyone to question what their place is, whats truly necessary to exist in society, and what normal truly means . . . Muratas novels are a valuable, heightened exploration of the intense discomfort that people, autistic or not, who are just a little outside of society can feel when they try to force themselves to fit in. Muratas message is: stop trying."--Marianne Eloise, i-D"Intimate, deadpan, and unflinchingly unhinged . . . Eleven-year-old protagonist Natsuki navigates through a brutal and lonely childhood to arrive in an adulthood spent raging against the system and descending into what might be madness, all to the (distinctly off-) beat of Muratas exceptionally fun prose . . . Amid all the hedgehog and alien talk is a novel that asks how happiness and freedom can be possible inside a stiflingly anxious world, and its answers, while grotesque, are worth reading."--Wired"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 . . . Heartrending, resonant, and unforgettable."--Book Reporter"Muratas unsettling, madcap 11th novel (after Convenience Store Woman) chronicles the nightmarish discontent of one girl amid the deadening conformity of modern Japanese society . . . The authors flat, deadpan prose makes the child Natsukis narration strangely and instantly believable and later serves to reflect her relationship to Japans societal anxiety. This eye-opening, grotesque outing isnt to be missed."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"An indelible portrait of an imaginative young woman learning to survive. Original in conception and astute in its social critique; highly recommended."--Library Journal (starred review)"Societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying . . . Murata again confronts and devastates so-called normal, proper behavior to create an unflinching exposé of society."--Terry Hong, Booklist"Earthlings continues to explore life on the fringes in Japan through an even darker and weirder lens, one that will take most readers on a wild ride far beyond the outermost limit of their comfort zones . . . The storys grotesque joy depends on the surprise at just how perverse things can get . . . Enthusiastically challenges most of our most deeply held societal taboos . . . A mind- and soul-expanding countercultural battle cry that is utterly one of a kind."--BookPage"A shocking allegory about the consequences of nonconformity . . . Perfect for fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Ottessa Moshfegh, this worthy follow-up to Muratas acclaimed Convenience Store Woman will stay with readers long after the story is over."--Shelf Awareness"I loved this book! It easily converted me to being an alien. A radical, hilarious, heartbreaking look at the crap we have all internalized in order to fit in and survive."--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot"Earthlings takes the mood of colorful disquiet she honed in Convenience Store Woman and pushes it further out. The boy and a girl at the heart of her latest believe they have landed on earth from outer space. Raised by separate families, treated badly, they tack toward each other in this immensely charming, strange and heart-stomping tale. The imagination of this writer grows and grows like outer space. Earthlings should be one of the main fictional events of 2020."--John Freeman, Literary Hub"From the author of 2018s comic gem about a Japanese misfit, Convenience Store Woman, a new novel featuring a young woman who is convinced she is an alien."--Guardian"This is one that should be on everyones wish list."--Japan Times"In 2020, we finally get our hands on Sayaka Muratas newest novel . . . A new statement by Murata that finding your own freedom is a struggle against family and society which takes sacrifice."--Books and BaoPraise for Convenience Store Woman: "Keiko, a defiantly oddball 36-year-old woman, has worked in a dead-end job as a convenience store cashier in Tokyo for half her life. She lives alone and has never been in a romantic relationship, or even had sex. And she is perfectly happy with all of it . . . Written in plain-spoken prose, the slim volume focuses on a character who in many ways personifies a demographic panic in Japan."--Motoko Rich, New York Times (profile) "A small, elegant and deadpan novel . . . Casts a fluorescent spell . . . A thrifty and offbeat exploration of what we must each leave behind to participate in the world."--Dwight Garner, New York Times "Alienation gets deliciously perverse treatment in Convenience Store Woman . . . The books true brilliance lies in Muratas way of subverting our expectations . . . With bracing good humor . . . Murata celebrate[s] the quiet heroism of women who accept the cost of being themselves."--John Powers, NPRs Fresh Air "The novel borrows from Gothic romance, in its pairing of the human and the alluringly, dangerously not. It is a love story, in other words, about a misfit and a store . . . Keikos self-renunciations reveal the book to be a kind of grim post-capitalist reverie: she is an anti-Bartleby, abandoning any shred of identity outside of her work . . . Tranquil--dreamy, even--rooting for its employee-store romance from the bottom of its synthetic heart."--Katy Waldman, New Yorker "An exhilaratingly weird and funny Japanese novel about a long-term convenience store employee. Unsettling and totally unpredictable--my copy is now heavily underlined."--Sally Rooney, Guardian "As intoxicating as a sake mojito . . . A literary prize-winner thats also a page-turner."--John Powers, Vogue "Its the novels cumulative, idiosyncratic poetry that lingers, attaining a weird, fluorescent kind of beauty all of its own."--Julie Myerson, Guardian "Brilliant, witty, and sweet in ways that recall Amélie and Shopgirl . . . Muratas sparkly writing and knack for odd, beautiful details are totally her own."--Vogue, "13 Books to Thrill, Entertain, and Sustain You This Summer" "A quiet masterpiece . . . Seldom has a narrator been so true to a lack of self, and so triumphantly other."--David Wright, Seattle Times "A spare, quietly brilliant novel . . . Like being lulled into a soft calm."--Arianna Rebolini, BuzzFeed "This magical little book performs this neat accordion track in sentences so clean and crisp its like they were laminated and placed before you, one at a time, in a well-windexd cooler . . . The 7-11 Madame Bovary."--John Freeman, Literary Hub "A personal favorite . . . The prose is as crisp as is the aesthetic of [Japan]"--Lauren Christensen, CBS This Morning "Knock-you-off-your-feet good, sucking you wholesale into the strange brain of its narrator . . . Like being beamed down onto a foreign planet, which turns out to be your own . . . May we buy out bookstores stocks of Convenience Store Woman, and yell Sayaka Muratas name from the rooftops."--Alison Tate Lewis, Electric Literature "A novel that proves sylphlike; spare in its contents, with a masterfully deceptive comic veneer that keeps the reader turning the page."--Zyzzyva "Quirky, memorable."--Times (UK) "Engaging . . . A sure-fire hit of the summer."--Irish Times "Smart and sly . . . Moving, funny, and unsettling."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Dazzling."--Booklist (starred review) "A unique and unexpectedly revealing English language debut."--Kirkus Reviews "A gem of a book. Quirky, deadpan, poignant, and quietly profound, it is a gift to anyone who has ever felt at odds with the world--and if we were truly being honest, I suspect that would be most of us."--Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being "What a weird and wonderful and deeply satisfying book this is. Sayaka Murata is an utterly unique and revolutionary voice. I tore through Convenience Store Woman with great delight."--Jami Attenberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Middlesteins and All Grown Up "A darkly comic, deeply unsettling examination of contemporary life, of alienation, of capitalism, of identity, of conformity. Weve all been to this convenience store, whether its in Japan or somewhere else."--Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer "This is a story about whats normal and not, a drama played on a stage so violently plain it becomes as vivid and surprising as an alien planet. I loved Convenience Store Woman: its brevity, its details, its opinions about life."--Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbras 24-Hour Bookstore "I picked up this novel on a trip to Japan and couldnt put it down. A haunting, dark, and often hilarious take on societys expectations of the single woman. As an extra bonus, it totally transformed my experience of going to convenience stores in Tokyo."--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot "Convenience Store Woman is a mighty fine book, completely charming. Sayaka Murata is a wonderful writer."--Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary Woman "Instructions: Open book. Consume contents. Feel charmed, disturbed, and weirdly in love. Do not discard."--Jade Chang, author of The Wangs Vs. the World "Murata creates an original and surreal world in the most unlikely places. Furukura, the convenience store woman, is a strange, complex, gripping protagonist who inadvertently propels her own story forth through a series of subtle actions yet it is through these actions and also the spareness of the authors prose that we see what a master Murata truly is. This book is not only readable, it is fun, thought provoking and at times outrageous and outrageously funny. It is sure to be a standout of the year."--Weike Wang, author of Chemistry "This novel made me laugh. It was the first time for me to laugh in this way: it was absurd, comical, cute . . . audacious, and precise. It was overwhelming."--Hiromi Kawakami, author of The Nakano Thrift Shop Review Quote Praise for Earthlings : Named a Most Anticipated Book by TIME , USA Today , the Guardian , Vulture , Literary Hub , Bustle , and Refinery29 "Muratas unsettling, madcap 11th novel (after Convenience Store Woman ) chronicles the nightmarish discontent of one girl amid the deadening conformity of modern Japanese society . . . The authors flat, deadpan prose makes the child Natsukis narration strangely and instantly believable and later serves to reflect her relationship to Japans societal anxiety. This eye-opening, grotesque outing isnt to be missed." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying . . . Murata again confronts and devastates so-called normal, proper behavior to create an unflinching expos Description for Sales People Earthlings is Sayaka Muratas second novel to be translated into English, a brilliantly bizarre follow up to Convenience Store Woman , which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller, selling over 60,000 copies in all formats in our editions, and going into seven printings in hardcover and four in paperback. Her audience is primed for this astonishing follow-up. Convenience Store Woman was the sleeper hit of summer 2018; Murata was profiled in the New York Times , the novel was named a Best Book of the Year by outlets including the New Yorker (a top 10 pick of the year), the Minneapolis Star Tribune , and Buzzfeed. It was selected as an Indies Introduce title and was a major indies bestseller and word-of-mouth success. It was shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and longlisted for the Believer Book Award. With this second book, Sayaka Murata has established herself as a master chronicler of the outsider experience. Like Convenience Store Woman , Earthlings highlights how we all take for granted the many insanities and hypocrisies of our modern world, including our attitudes to work, procreation, love, taboos, and death. We have built a major audience for Murata, one that continues to grow steadily with strong continuing sales each week, even almost two years out from original publication. Sayaka Murata has fans from Dwight Garner to Sally Rooney to Viet Thanh Nguyen to Elif Batuman to Ruth Ozeki. Earthlings will speak to her existing fans as well as appeal to those readers of dark, weird fiction by writers like Ottessa Moshfegh and Kelly Link. The star of Earthlings , Natsuki, is as memorable a protagonist as convenience store worker Keiko Furukura. Natsuki resists conforming to what she calls the "Baby Factory," the societal expectation of people to have children, just like animals. Natsuki believes she is from another planet and doesnt know how to behave like an earthling. Natsukis resistance to having children in particular recalls many recent bestselling books that examine the position of mothers, including Jenny Offills Dept. of Speculation and Sheila Hetis Motherhood . We have again sublicensed UK & Commonwealth rights to Granta in the UK. Convenience Store Woman performed fantastically there, selling over 100,000 copies in all formats and being named the Best Book of the Year by Foyles in the Fiction category. Sayaka Murata will be doing a residency in upstate New York at Art OMIs Ledig House around the time of publication. There continues to be significant TV/film interest around Convenience Store Woman , with a Japanese film underway and many offers for English-language adaptations. We hope that there will be similar interest in Earthlings. Details ISBN0802157009 Author Ginny Tapley Takemori Pages 240 Language English Year 2020 ISBN-10 0802157009 ISBN-13 9780802157003 Format Hardcover DEWEY 895.636 Publisher Black Cat Imprint Black Cat Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Publication Date 2020-10-06 AU Release Date 2020-10-06 NZ Release Date 2020-10-06 US Release Date 2020-10-06 UK Release Date 2020-10-06 Translator Ginny Tapley Takemori Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137750610;

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