Oyamada, Hiroko – The Bell Bookshop

The hole

Emma — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘As I tried to move, I realized how narrow the hole really was. The hole felt as though it was exactly my size – a trap made just for me’When Asa’s husband is offered a new job away from the city, the couple end up relocating. And since his new office is very close to his family’s home, it makes sense to move in next door to his parents. Through the long hot summer, Asa does her best to adjust to their new rural lives, to the constant presence of her in-laws, to the emptiness of her existence and the incessant buzz of cicadas. And then one day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole – a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her. Thus begins a series of bizarre experiences that drives Asa deeper into the mysteries of this rural landscape and the family she has married in to, leading her to question her role in this world and, eventually, who she even is.’A great book’ Patti Smith’Surreal and mesmerizing’ New York Times’A rare literary page-turner’ Monique Truong’A haunting and transformative work of fiction’ Laura van den Berg

The factory

Emma — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

From the award-winning author of Weasels in the Attic, a modern fable about the world of workBeyond the town, there is the factory. Beyond the factory, there is nothing. Within the sprawling industrial complex, three new employees are each assigned a department. There, each must focuses on a specific task: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. As they grow accustomed to the routine and co-workers, their lives become governed by their work–days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What’s going on with the strange animals here? And after a while–it could be weeks or years–the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here? With hints of Kafka and Beckett and unexpected moments of creeping humour, The Factory is a vivid, and sometimes surreal, portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.

Weasels in the attic

Emma — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A UK debut from a fresh, prize-winning talent, this quietly surreal novel is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Mieko KawakamiTwo friends meet across three dinners. In the back room of a pet shop, they snack on dried shrimps and discuss fish-breeding. In a remote new home in the mountains, they look for a solution to a weasel infestation. During a dinner party in a blizzard, a mounting claustrophobia makes way for uneasy dreams. Their conversations often take them in surprising directions, but when one of the men becomes a father, more and more is left unsaid. With emotional acuity and a wry humour, Weasels in the Attic it is an uncanny and striking reflection on fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan.