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Natsuko Imamura

The Woman in the Purple Skirt: Natsuko Imamura Paperback – 3 Jun. 2021

by Natsuko Imamura (Author)

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'Chilling.' Vogue
'As unusual as it is alluring.' Elle
'Delightfully disturbing.' Refinery 29
'Very powerful.' Sayaka Murata
'Disquieting.' Paula Hawkins
'You will be obsessed.' Leila Slimani

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is being watched. Someone is following her, always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes; what she eats; whom she speaks to. But this invisible observer isn't a stalker - it's much more complicated than that.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber
Publication date

3 Jun. 2021
Dimensions

13.5 x 1.6 x 21.6 cm
ISBN-10

0571364675
ISBN-13

978-0571364671
See all details

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From the Publisher

Product description

Review

A chilling tale of envy and vulnerability. Clear space on your reading list now. ― Vogue

A voyeuristic thriller . . . This study in fascination, translated from Japanese, is as unusual as it is alluring. ― Elle

Delightfully disturbing . . . Imamura does weird singularly well, and keeps the suspense taut throughout the novel, always teasing an answer to the questions: Why this woman? What makes her so special? What makes any of us worth watching at all? ― Refinery 29

Short and spare, Imamura's clever and engrossing Englishlanguage debut deals with loneliness and voyeurism in ways that are alternately chilling, poignant and humorous. ― Herald

Disquieting and wryly funny, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession. -- Paula Hawkins

Very powerful . . . Meticulous and extremely precise . . . Reading this book made me feel like I was in an unstable and strange world. -- Sayaka Murata

A breathless novel that depicts with sly humor the strange relationship between two women in contemporary Japan. You too will be obsessed with the Woman in the Purple Skirt and held in suspense until the last page. -- Leila Slimani

Imamura definitely has a rare talent for depicting people who are a little out of the ordinary. . . . By the time I got to the end, a powerful sense of the narrator's loneliness forcing its way through the madness gripped my heart. -- Yoko Ogawa

Imamura offers her reader crisp, refreshing prose. The Woman in the Purple Skirt will keep you firmly in its grips with its persistent, disquieting, matter-of-fact style. -- Oyinkan Braithwaite

Reading this novel, you can really hear Natsuko Imamura's unique voice, which comes across quite unsparingly and beautifully. -- Hiromi Kawakami

A superb story . . . I was mesmerized by this narrator. Unlikable men who hold our sympathy are frequently found in fiction, but I don't think I've ever encountered a woman as unappealing as this one who still managed to keep me completely beguiled. -- Suichi Yoshida

Part psychological thriller, part study of endemic loneliness . . . a clever, wry and disturbing piece of fiction [and] a sharp examination of personality and persona and the small terrors of everyday life. -- Catherine Taylor ― Irish Times

Horrifying, humorous, whimsical, and disturbing . . . It will remain with you. ― Tokyo Shimbun

A novel unlike anything that's come before it . . . This strange and unsettling story about control and paranoia will likely take 2021 by storm. ― Metropolis

Delightfully disturbing . . . Imamura does weird singularly well, and keeps the suspense taut throughout. ― Yahoo!Life

Book Description

Clever, bewildering and darkly comic, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is the story of two women whose lives are set to become terribly entwined.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Main edition (3 Jun. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571364675
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571364671
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.5 x 1.6 x 21.6 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 69,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 8,551 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 12,707 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
79 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		34%
4 star		35%
3 star		20%
2 star		9%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Marcelo

Bored 😑

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2021

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Bored

Helpful

A Compulsive, Disturbing & Darkly Humorous Thriller About Obsession, Desire & Loneliness

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2021

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a story of psychological intrigue surrounding stalking, obsession and manipulation which, despite its serious theme, does not lack a special subtle Japanese humour, in which the reader sometimes laughs, but this is never without a melancholic undertone and is written by the winner of multiple prestigious Japanese literary awards. The enigmatic Woman in the Purple Skirt is of indeterminate age, lives alone, does not relate to anyone, has temporary jobs and is the entertainment of the neighbourhood. It's probably because of that purple skirt that she never takes off of her and because she always follows the same routines. People notice her when she leaves the house and children who play in the street chase and insult her. This woman has a special talent: she can walk through crowds without touching anyone, and many have tried to "accidentally" run into her without succeeding. Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt (tWitPS) buys a single cream brioche and goes to the park in an unnamed Japanese city, where she returns to the same bench to eat it as the local children taunt her and compete for her attention. She is observed at all times by the undetected narrator, the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan who checks what she eats, where she goes and who she encounters. She watches her, constantly, day after day. She knows her every waking move from dawn until dusk. From a distance, the tWitPS looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face, and her hair is dry and stiff. Like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, she is single, she lives in a small, run-down apartment, and she is short on money.

The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan lures her to a job, under the pretence of wanting to be her friend, where she herself works, as a hotel housekeeper at a cleaning agency; soon twitPS is having an affair with the boss. And here is where the two women’s paths finally intersect dramatically and unpredictably. Unfortunately, no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and tWitPS. Who are these two women really, whose only common traits seem to be precariousness and loneliness? This is a scintillating, enthralling and compulsively readable thriller with creepiness simply oozing from its pages and the slightly surreal aura Japanese stories often exude, which I love. It's a novel with high doses of humour that explores vulnerability and the difficulty of finding one's own place when one is different. The subtle and disturbing tale of an obsession, a story that, in a crescendo of tension, gradually takes on the tones of the thriller, in a spiral of unexpressed desires, loneliness, dynamics of female power and condition, a desperate desire to be visible, to be considered and loved. The cast of characters is small but this is perfect as it allows the focus to be solely on the two women at the centre of the story; they are both idiosyncratic, multidimensional and fascinating to read about and I read with more and more urgency to uncover why they were the way they were. Studiously deadpan, highly original, and unsettling, tWitPS explores the dynamics of envy, the mechanisms of power in the workplace and the vulnerability of unmarried women in a taut, voyeuristic narrative about the sometimes desperate desire to be seen. Highly recommended.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

strange but compelling!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2021

Japanese literature never fails to amuse, entertain, befuddle and bemuse me, and this is another one of those books that casts its' spell on me as I was hooked from page one on this mysterious story of one woman stalking another, to the point of obsession. And it throws up so many questions as to the focus of the story - is it a look at the way we function as a society now, where we become obsessed with people we don't know via social media and make assumptions about them without knowing the truth? Instead of focussing on ourselves, our own happiness, our own success... it's just too easy to lose yourself in somebody elses life.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a lady who sits on the same bench, eats the same cake - follows the same routine day in day out, talking to nobody, minding her own business - all under the watchful eye of the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan who narrates this story and shares just how obsessive her 'stalking' of this woman becomes. The attention to detail is scary! And she even engineers a way to get Purple skirt lady a job where she works - a way to keep an even closer watch over her.

But as Purple skirt settles into her new job, a new side of her is seen and this begins to unsettle Yellow Cardigan as she watches on - losing herself in someone elses life means she doesn't have o focus on her own, and that isn't looking too hot right now.

I loved the quirkiness of this story and how it starts off feeling quite light and insightful, but soon has a much darker feel and claustrophobic. It touches on obsession,manipulation and how loneliness affects different people - how perceptions can change of people. The tension works so well as you wait to figure out just where this obsession will lead to... a strange but compelling story!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Absolutely loved this quirky story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2021

This is a review of the audio version of this book purchased on Audible. This is the first book to be translated into English by award winning Japanese author Natsuko Imamura. It is an intriguing and unusual tale of envy and obsession in which you never quite know what is going on until right at the end. We have all seen distinctive strangers and wondered about their lives but we know very little about them. This is a story of what happens when someone follows through on this and are lured into their world. I loved the style of writing and the strange plot development and it made me smile listening to this. Simply wonderful. Five stars.

2 people found this helpful

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