Winner of the Subaru Literary Prize 2022 · A witty, deadpan Japanese novella for fans of Sayaka Murata
Hirai is in a rut. Nearing 40, disillusioned by dating and drifting through her office job, she's starting to feel like she might just disappear. When she agrees to move in with her older colleague, Suganuma, people raise eyebrows — but the two women quickly settle into their own soothing domestic routines, allowing space for Suganuma's side-hustle: 3D-printing figurines of beloved dead pets for their grieving owners.
Yet escaping the pressures of romantic love isn't easy. When a crisis jolts Hirai back into the world of dating apps, she meets more painfully adequate men and frets about whether she really needs to freeze her eggs again. In a dating world sapped of genuine connection, where can she turn to feel less hollow?
Witty and deadpan, Hollow Inside is a wonderfully skewed story of two single women trying to carve out their own space in a world of couples. Asako Otani's prize-winning debut — translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, celebrated translator of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman — satirizes the myths and pressures of contemporary romantic love with sharp social observation and offbeat humour.
