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Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (Author), David Boyd (Translator)

From the acclaimed author of The Hole and The Factory, a thrilling and mysterious novel that explores fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan

In three interconnected scenes, Hiroko Oyamada revisits the same set of characters at different junctures in their lives. In the back room of a pet store full of rare and exotic fish, old friends discuss dried shrimp and a strange new relationship. A couple who recently moved into a rustic home in the mountains discovers an unsettling solution to their weasel infestation. And a dinner party during a blizzard leads to a night in a room filled with aquariums and unpleasant dreams. Like Oyamada’s previous novels, Weasels in the Attic sets its sights on the overlooked aspects of contemporary Japanese society, and does so with a surreal sensibility that is entirely her own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Praise for Hiroko Oyamada’s previous novels:

Nothing feels fixed; everything in the book might be a hallucination.”
Parul Seghal, The New York Times Book Review

“Surreal and mesmerizing.”
Hilary Leichter, The New York Times

“Horrific and scary, while at the same time affirming and beautiful.”
New Republic

“The acclaimed author of The Factory and The Hole returns with this new installment that might be her strongest, most memorable work yet. Just like the last two titles, Weasels in the Atticis a thin book totaling less than 100 pages…The book simmers with eerie tension and bursts with unforgettable monologues”
Yurina Yoshikawa, NPR

“As in Oyamada’s earlier novels, Weasels in the Attic lingers on the grotesqueries of everyday life with a subtle, deadpan humour.”
Metropolis Japan

About the Author

Born in Hiroshima in 1983, Hiroko Oyamada won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for The Factory, which was drawn from her experiences working as a temp for an automaker’s subsidiary. Her novel The Hole won Akutagawa Prize.

David Boyd is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has translated stories by Genichiro Takahashi, Masatsugu Ono and Toh EnJoe, among others. His translation of Hideo Furukawa’s Slow Boat won the 2017/2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. With Sam Bett, he is cotranslating the novels of Mieko Kawakami.
 
 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions (October 4, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 96 pages

 

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