Friday 29 March 2024

Book Review: Asa - The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks by Imamura Natsuko (Contemporary Fiction)

Asa: The Girl Who Turned Into a Pair of Chopsticks
Imamura Natsuko
Faber & Faber
27 June 2024
208
eBook - PDF
Contemporary Fiction
ARC via NetGalley

The startling first collection of dark, surreal, and unsettling stories from the international prize-winning author of The Woman in the Purple Skirt.

Asa tries to give her classmate a biscuit.
Nami evades her classmates' playground game of acorn-throwing.
Happy decides she's not interested in doing anything other than lying down on her sofa.

Each of these three stories begins in a reasonable place-but by the end you'll find yourself in another world altogether.

 

Asa: The Girl Who Turned Into a Pair of Chopsticks was a strange trilogy of stories in some ways: strange but fascinating. They were certainly thought-provoking pieces, even if they pushed the boundaries of believability beyond those of general magical realism. As such, I feel they will likely divide readers into love-hate positions, as if the fantasy elements don't appeal or work for a reader, they could simply view the stories as silly and miss the underlying messages and themes. Based on this book, I would be keen to read more from this author in the future. I am giving it four stars.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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