First of all I would like to thank the lovely George at Granta for being so kind and sending me a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata and translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori centres on (official blurb): “An engaged couple falls out over the husband’s dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story that first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: ‘A Clean Marriage’, which tells the story of a happily asexual couple who must submit to some radical medical procedures if they are to conceive a longed-for child.Mixing taboo-breaking body horror with feminist revenge fables, old ladies who love each other and young women finding empathy and transformation in unlikely places, Life Ceremony is a wild ride to the outer edges of one of the most original minds in contemporary fiction.”
Life Ceremony is such a weird and wonderful short story collection. I definitely cannot wait to see what Sayaka Murata does next. She is such an incredible writer and storyteller!
Each and every story in this collection is utterly brilliant, weird and absolutely wonderful. Sayaka Murata has such a way with words. She knows how to grab her reader by the throat and at no point lets them go until they have completed every single story in this collection.
Normal is a stage of madness, isn’t it? I think it’s just that the only madness society allows is called normal.
I love how Sayaka Murata chooses such taboo topics to write about and believe me when I say she knows exactly what she is doing! Each and every story is thought-provoking, unique, weird, wonderful, uncomfortable and utterly fascinating!
I absolutely adored Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman and knew after reading that I would read everything and anything Sayaka Murata writes as soon as its translated.
The snow grew heavier, painting the world white outside the window. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?
Trigger Warnings: body horror, cannibalism and incest.
(Photo is my own please do not copy/take without permission first).
Where there's Ink there's Paper 