From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own. As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?
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I’ve had my eye on Sayaka Murata for a while, and I was excited to finally read one of her books. The Vanishing World was unsettling, eerie, and deeply thought-provoking. Murata has a way of immersing the reader seamlessly into her world, and her ability to capture the most grotesque aspects of human nature—the insecurity, insatiable greed, and hypocrisy—is both disturbing and fascinating.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this book was its depiction of family structures. The way Murata presents them feels unsettlingly plausible, as if she’s holding up a warped mirror to our world. Whether her vision of the future is dystopian or just the inevitable evolution of society is left up to the reader to decide.
I also appreciate how direct and unflinching Murata’s writing is—she doesn’t waste words, and every sentence feels purposeful. That said, I found myself irritated with every single character, which I think was intentional. Their flaws are the driving force of the story, making them difficult to like but impossible to ignore. And then there’s Saku—his character felt so odd and disconnected from traditional masculinity that at times, it didn’t even feel like he was written as a man. Which I understand now was an intentional decision.
Overall, The Vanishing World was an unsettling yet compelling read, and Murata’s unique storytelling left a strong impression on me.
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