The Hole

When Asa's husband is offered a new job away from the city, the couple end up relocating. And since his new office is very close to his family's home, it makes sense to move in next door to his parents.

Through the long hot summer, Asa does her best to adjust to their new rural lives, to the constant presence of her in-laws, to the emptiness of her existence and the incessant buzz of cicadas. And then one day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole - a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her.

Thus begins a series of bizarre experiences that drive Asa deeper into the mysteries of this rural landscape and the family she has married in to, leading her to question her role in this world and, eventually, who she even is.

About the author

Born in Hiroshima in 1983, HIROKO OYAMADA a is the author of two novellas: The Factory, which won the Shincho Prize for New Writers, and The Hole, which won Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize. Oyamada has also written numerous short stories and essays.

Product details

• Authors: Hiroko Oyamada
• Assisted by: David Boyd (Translation)
• Publisher: Granta Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.10.2024
• EAN: 9781803510620
• ISBN: 978-1-80351-062-0
• No. of pages: 96
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 7 mm
• Weight: 78 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); Fantasy, FICTION / General, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction: special features, FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Magical Realism, FICTION / Small Town & Rural, Family life fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Magical Realism