The Hole
Novel Won the Akutagawa Prize in 2013.
Asa and her husband moved into his parents’ house because Asa’s husband got a job transfer to another location. His parents are now their neighbors. Asa decided not to keep her job because the commute would take too long. She will rather look for a new job near her new home.
Now, Asa spends long hours at home alone in idleness. The husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law are at work. Only the husband’s grandfather is home in a neighboring house, and her mother-in-law Tomiko says he spends the day napping in front of the television. It’s summer, it’s hot outside, and she listens to loud cicada noise. She gets quickly bored because she is not used to this. She used to work all day to pay the rent and had little free time.
One day, when she goes outside, she sees a strange animal she cannot identify. When she follows it, she falls into a big hole from which she cannot get out on her own.
The Hole is a strange little novel. But I liked it and expected it to be something like that. Reality often blends with the fantastical elements.
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| Goodreads |
- author: Hiroko Oyamada
- full title: The Hole
- genre: literary fiction
- format/type: bookfiction
- country: Japan
- topics: #magicalrealism
- publisher: New Directions
- publish date: October 6, 2020
- pages: 92
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
Hiroko Oyamada (小山田浩子) is a Japanese author. She 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 following novel, The Hole, won the Akutagawa Prize.
Other Works by this Author:
- The Factory
- Weasels in the Attic
... authors from all around the World.
