About this item
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.
About the Author
Sayaka Murata (in Japanese, ) is one of the most exciting up-and-coming writers in Japan today. She herself still works part time in a convenience store, which gave her the inspiration to write ) . She debuted in 2003 with ) , which won the Gunzo Prize for new writers. In 2009 she won the Noma Prize for New Writers with ) , and in 2013 the Mishima Yukio Prize for won the 2016 Akutagawa Award. Murata has two short stories published in English (both translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) : "Lover on the Breeze" (, Waseda Bungaku, 2011) and "A Clean Marriage" (
