A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker ยท NPR ยท WBEZโs Nerdette ยท The New York Public Library ยท Literary Hub
A New York Times Editorsโ Choice
โOne of the most passionate cases Iโve ever read for female interiority, for womenโs creative pulse and rich inner life.โ โKaty Waldman, The New Yorker
โAlways expect the unexpected when youโre not expecting.โ โSloane Crosley
A woman in Tokyo avoids harassment at work by perpetuating, for nine months and beyond, the lie that sheโs pregnant in this prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about the mother of all deceptions, for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Breasts and Eggs
When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job to escape sexual harassment at her old one, she finds that as the only woman at her new workplaceโa manufacturer of cardboard tubesโshe is expected to do all the menial tasks. One day she announces that she canโt clear away her coworkersโ dirty cupsโbecause sheโs pregnant and the smell nauseates her. The only thing is . . . Ms. Shibata is not pregnant.
Pregnant Ms. Shibata doesnโt have to serve coffee to anyone. Pregnant Ms. Shibata isnโt forced to work overtime. Pregnant Ms. Shibata watches TV, takes long baths, and even joins an aerobics class for expectant mothers. Sheโs living a year of rest and relaxation, and is finally being treated by her colleagues as more than a hollow core. But she has a ruse to keep up. Before long, it becomes all-absorbing, and with the help of towel-stuffed shirts and a diary app that tracks every stage of her โpregnancy,โ the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve.
Surreal and absurdist, and with a winning matter-of-factness, a light touch, and a refreshing sensitivity to mental health, Diary of a Void will keep you turning the pages to see just how far Ms. Shibata will carry her deception for the sake of women, and especially working mothers, everywhere.