PLEASE NOTE THE CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THIS BOOK
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest, a place that couldn’t be more different from her grey commuter town. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial and that every night he searches the sky for the spaceship that might take him back to his home planet. Natsuki wonders if she might be an alien too. Back in her city home, Natsuki is scolded or ignored and even preyed upon by a young teacher at her cram school. As she grows up in a hostile, violent world, she consoles herself with memories of her time with Yuu and discovers a surprisingly potent inner power. Natsuki seems forced to fit into a society she deems a “baby factory” but even as a married woman she wonders if there is more to this world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them.
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.
PLEASE NOTE THE CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THIS BOOK
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest, a place that couldn’t be more different from her grey commuter town. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial and that every night he searches the sky for the spaceship that might take him back to his home planet. Natsuki wonders if she might be an alien too. Back in her city home, Natsuki is scolded or ignored and even preyed upon by a young teacher at her cram school. As she grows up in a hostile, violent world, she consoles herself with memories of her time with Yuu and discovers a surprisingly potent inner power. Natsuki seems forced to fit into a society she deems a “baby factory” but even as a married woman she wonders if there is more to this world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them.
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.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find Earthlings: A Novel Sayaka Murata in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Earthlings: A Novel Sayaka Murata in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
A quiet examination of societal nonconformity and the surreal expectations of modern life defines contemporary Japanese fiction, where the novel Convenience Store Woman (Konbini Ningen) became an international bestseller translated into more than thirty languages. Written by Sayaka Murata (村田 撙耶香), the book draws directly on the author's real-world experience working part-time at a convenience store while building a distinctive literary career.
Born on August 14, 1979, in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Sayaka Murata made her literary debut in 2003 with Junyu (Breastfeeding), which won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers. She continued writing while working part-time in a convenience store, earning steady acclaim across Japan. In 2009, she won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Gin iro no uta (Silver Song), followed in 2013 by the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-oro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City). Her major breakthrough came in 2016 when Convenience Store Woman won the 2016 Akutagawa Award, Japan's most prestigious literary prize.
Murata's short fiction also reached international audiences prior to her full-length novel translations. Her story 'Lover on the Breeze' appeared in Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake (Waseda Bungaku) in 2011, and 'A Clean Marriage' was featured in Granta 127: Japan in 2014. Literary translator Ginny Tapley Takemori has rendered all of Murata's English editions, including the novels Earthlings and Vanishing World as well as the story collection Life Ceremony. Recognized broadly for her original perspective, Murata has been named a Freeman's 'Future of New Writing' author and a Vogue Japan Woman of the Year.
Murata's narrative style combines deadpan humor, social satire, and psychological surrealism to critique traditional expectations regarding gender roles, family structure, labor, and social conformity. Her characters frequently exist outside societal norms surrounding marriage and career paths, revealing the underlying pressures of modern conformity. By contrasting ordinary settings with taboo or uncanny premises—such as recycling human remains or redefining interpersonal relationships—her work challenges readers to question what society deems acceptable.
1 books in catalog
A quiet examination of societal nonconformity and the surreal expectations of modern life defines contemporary Japanese fiction, where the novel Convenience Store Woman (Konbini Ningen) became an international bestseller translated into more than thirty languages. Written by Sayaka Murata (村田 撙耶香), the book draws directly on the author's real-world experience working part-time at a convenience store while building a distinctive literary career.
Born on August 14, 1979, in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Sayaka Murata made her literary debut in 2003 with Junyu (Breastfeeding), which won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers. She continued writing while working part-time in a convenience store, earning steady acclaim across Japan. In 2009, she won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Gin iro no uta (Silver Song), followed in 2013 by the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-oro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City). Her major breakthrough came in 2016 when Convenience Store Woman won the 2016 Akutagawa Award, Japan's most prestigious literary prize.
Murata's short fiction also reached international audiences prior to her full-length novel translations. Her story 'Lover on the Breeze' appeared in Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake (Waseda Bungaku) in 2011, and 'A Clean Marriage' was featured in Granta 127: Japan in 2014. Literary translator Ginny Tapley Takemori has rendered all of Murata's English editions, including the novels Earthlings and Vanishing World as well as the story collection Life Ceremony. Recognized broadly for her original perspective, Murata has been named a Freeman's 'Future of New Writing' author and a Vogue Japan Woman of the Year.
Murata's narrative style combines deadpan humor, social satire, and psychological surrealism to critique traditional expectations regarding gender roles, family structure, labor, and social conformity. Her characters frequently exist outside societal norms surrounding marriage and career paths, revealing the underlying pressures of modern conformity. By contrasting ordinary settings with taboo or uncanny premises—such as recycling human remains or redefining interpersonal relationships—her work challenges readers to question what society deems acceptable.
