{"id":47279,"date":"2020-09-22T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=47279"},"modified":"2020-09-18T12:43:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:43:25","slug":"earthlings-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/earthlings-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Akutagawa Prize-winning Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman<\/em><\/a>, 2018), with her lauded, chosen translator Ginny Tapley Takemori \u2013 two short stories and now two novels thus far \u2013 returns for more societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying fiction.<\/p>\n

At 11, Natsuki is already aware she doesn\u2019t fit into her family: \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t here, the three of them would make a perfect unit.\u201d Her closest connection is cousin Yuu, whom she sees only once a year when the extended family gathers at their grandparents\u2019 remote home to commemorate ancestors during Obon. The children mutually confess they\u2019re Planet Popinpobopia aliens, trapped in \u201cThe Factory\u201d to mature into humanity-saving breeders. Natsuki, at least, has Piyyut, a magic-endowing Popinpobopia emissary (actually a stuffed toy hedgehog) who saves her from her predatory, pedophilic teacher.<\/p>\n

When the cousins find (inappropriate) comfort against the world, the adults harshly separate them. Reunion only happens 23 years later when Natsuki takes her unconventional husband to the ancestral home where Yuu has been sequestering.<\/p>\n

What happens is \u2013 well, yes \u2013 out of this world. Murata again confronts and devastates so-called \u201cnormal,\u201d \u201cproper\u201d behavior to create an unflinching expos\u00e9 of society.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Fiction,”\u00a0Booklist<\/em>, September 1, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2018 (Japan), 2020 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akutagawa Prize-winning Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman, 2018), with her lauded, chosen translator Ginny Tapley Takemori \u2013 two short stories and now two novels thus far \u2013 returns for more societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying fiction. At 11, Natsuki is already aware she doesn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,76,6535,66],"tags":[84,6608,6668,75,9276,10,11,7883,13,212,7882,598],"class_list":["post-47279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-japanese","category-repost","category-translation","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-death","tag-earthlings","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-ginny-tapley-takemori","tag-love","tag-murder","tag-sayaka-murata","tag-sexual-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nEarthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/earthlings-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Akutagawa Prize-winning Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman, 2018), with her lauded, chosen translator Ginny Tapley Takemori \u2013 two short stories and now two novels thus far \u2013 returns for more societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying fiction. At 11, Natsuki is already aware she doesn\u2019t...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/earthlings-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-22T15:12:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-18T16:43:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/09\/Earthlings-Sayaka-Murata-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"645\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"966\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/earthlings-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"Akutagawa Prize-winning Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman, 2018), with her lauded, chosen translator Ginny Tapley Takemori \u2013 two short stories and now two novels thus far \u2013 returns for more societally defiant, shockingly disconnected, disturbingly satisfying fiction. 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