Advertisement

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata review – compellingly weird

Japanese writer Sayaka Murata scored an international bestseller with her last novel, Convenience Store Woman, a brilliantly observed story of a neurodivergent woman who has finally found sanctuary working in a shop, where the clear guidelines for behaviour allow her to pass as “normal”.

The heroine of Earthlings, Natsuki, is cut from similar cloth: a detached observer who struggles to make sense of the rules of life, and later the expectation that she must get married and have children. But this time, Murata dials up the trauma.

They become convinced all humans are mere brainwashed workers in a baby-making factory

As a child, Natsuki is sexually abused by a teacher, and then punished when caught sleeping with her cousin Yuu, the only person who understands her. This seems to arrest her development, and the stories Natsuki tells herself as a kid – that her toy hedgehog is an alien who has given her magic powers – are clung to, right into adulthood.

The descriptions of dissociating from her body are particularly gut-shredding: “Before I knew it, I had left my body and was looking down from the ceiling at Mr Igasaki holding my head. Wow, I must have summoned a super strong magical power.” The pledge Natsuki and her cousin make – “survive, whatever it takes” – is held to with a fervour that soon turns dangerous.

Related: Sayaka Murata: 'I acted how I thought a cute woman should act - it was horrible'

The grownup Natsuki finds a man online who also wants to get married simply to get his family off his back, with no interest in sex or romance. It’s a meeting of minds, if not bodies: together, they become convinced they are both aliens and see all humans as mere brainwashed workers in a baby-making factory. But their attempt at crafting their own society gets very weird, very quickly.

Natsuki makes for a compelling narrator, and Earthlings is a frequently disturbing but pacy read, with its own off-key humour. I ripped through it, despite some misgivings. While Natsuki is vividly drawn, especially in childhood, other characters are frequently less convincing, and the story hurtles towards a lurid finale that Murata doesn’t quite pull off.

• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, is published by Granta (£12.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply