The book
Feminist tales from Japan that blend humor, surrealism, and sharp societal critique, by the acclaimed author of Where the Wild Ladies Are
A collection of fifty-two short stories and pieces of flash fiction, The Woman Dies takes as its impetus the various forms of discrimination entrenched within Japanese society, particularly the long, stubborn roots of sexism.
Matsuda approaches often-thorny subjects such as the normalizing effect of violence against women on screen, or the aesthetics associated with technology, with an inventiveness and quirky humor that keep the narrative on the cusp between seriousness and levity.
Wordplay evolves into something much more complex, inanimate objects are endowed with their own point of view, and hard-hitting feminist stances are conveyed with a dry, detached humor that makes them all the more uncompromising.
Not so much a rollercoaster ride, rather an entire theme park, The Woman Dies is an out-of-the ordinary space readers will step into with feelings of wonder and discombobulation in equal parts.
The author
Aoko Matsuda
Aoko Matsuda is a writer and translator. In 2013, her debut book, Stackable, was nominated for the Mishima Yukio Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize. In 2019, her short story “The Woman Dies,” published by Granta online, was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award. In 2021, her short story collection Where the Wild Ladies Are, published by Soft Skull Press, was highly praised by the BBC, Guardian, New York Times, and New Yorker, and was selected as one of the 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 by TIME. It was nominated for a Ray Bradbury Prize, sponsored by the LA Times, and won the Firecracker Award in the fiction category and the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 2021. She has translated work by Karen Russell, Amelia Gray, and Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese.