Today we want to suggest you a book from a Japanese author: Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.
OK, so what's the big deal in this? Earthlings, at least from the plot in most of websites, it is just the story of a kid that growing up is with an asexual husband and travels to her grandpa's place in the mountains, where she finds her childhood love.
Unfortunately like most synopsis, it is very inaccurate, missing 100% of the book. Plot is only roughly correct as it it really much more than that. You know what? It misses 150%, because it really points you towards something this book it is not.
But I must say also fortunately because you may be pleasantly surprise upon reading and discovering it is much much more.
Let's go step by step to understand if you are the kind of person that may like (or not) this book.
First think you may have to ask yourself is: have I read 'Convenience Store Woman' of the same author?
If the answer is yes, that's good, you know the author writes 'lightly' about the constrains of society, the Japanese one, about the inevitable warming and comforting 'hug' it gives when you accept the fate can't be avoided. If you have not read it, well, now you know.
This book is not different as it explores the children alienation in their own families, the borders in human relations set up by family first and then by expectations. It is a lot and the more you think about it when you finish the more you realize. The children tries to explore sexuality, innocently, but they are 'disrupted' by the families and a decades long rift happen, while on the other side, violence and abuse are 'accepted' as they cannot happen. It is a story of refusing to embrace the society scheme and also trying to escape it. To the extreme. It is the desire to be 'normal' knowing it is wrong and being wrong knowing it is (personally) right. It is complicated.
Note on my side. Having read Natsuo Kirino's books I learnt a lesson, never to expect from the author to stick to the previous style, themes etc. I enjoyed her books, and when I read The Goddess Chronicle I found something completely different. So for this book, as I progressed reading it seemed to me the author went away from her previous book thematic. She did not. I discovered that upon reading it. It was a nice realization.
Deserve to be read, but... well, only if you are willing to read things you may not like. Furthermore remember it is about Japanese society.
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