Earthlings

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand & a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, & dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

Dark, sharp & with a deeply unexpected twist, Earthlings is an exhilarating cosmic flight that will leave you reeling & cements Sayaka Murata’s status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience & our own uncanny universe.

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Sayaka Murata is one of the most celebrated of the new generation of Japanese writers. She is the author of the short story collection Life Ceremony & the novels Vanishing World & Convenience Store Woman, winner of the Akutagawa Prize. She has also won the Gunzo, Noma, & Mishima Yukio Prizes.

Murata has been named a Freeman’s “Future of New Writing” author & a Vogue Japan Woman of the Year. Her story, ‘A Clean Marriage’, was featured in Granta 127 Japan. Murata was chosen for inclusion in Freeman’s: The Future of New Writing.

Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated award-winning texts by Sayaka Murata, Kyoko Nakajima, & Kaori Fujino.