Diary of a Void A hilarious, feminist read from the new star of Japanese fiction

I loved it! The lie of the protagonist was the all-time focus and it rose a lot of different emotions and thoughts within the protagonist and within myself. The book can be something to reflect on, but it can also just be a fun and easy read.

Emi Yagi's prize-winning debut tells the story of 34-years old Mrs. Shibata who is working in a male dominated office and treated as the office's coffee serving secretary even though she is on the same level as all of her male coworkers. Cleaning dirty mugs, tidying up the conference room and keeping the common room with its little kitchen pristine are only a few of the menial tasks she has to fulfill besides her actual work - until one day she claims to be pregnant and everything changes. Yagi's social observations as well as her subtle sense of humour make this novel an easy yet highly insightful read thanks to Shibata's strong character. Despite living a lie and thereby excluding herself from any meaningful personal relationship, Shibata is truthful in describing her feelings and what it means to be truly alone and "doing it all" on your own. The perfect read for a short and entertaining trip into Japanese culture, single motherhood and working life.

Imagine telling your friends and co-workers that you're pregnant just so you can live a normal life. This book deals with this idea and others that come up on the topic. The rather cynical, dry humor really suited my taste.

I liked Diary Of A Void very much, I had so much fun reading it. The story is about a woman, Ms Shibata, who wants to be pregnant, isn’t though, so she is pretending to be, just to avoid the obligation of cleaning up the coffee cups. She is letting her coworkers know very early on, that she is with child (which she is not) and she is starting to like the attention she is getting. I liked how everyone behaved different around Ms Shibata, which was, or is, how the real world is treating pregnant women on a daily basis. The end threw me off though, Shibata seemed to fall into a deep delusion, and I couldn’t tell what was real and what was happening in her imagination anymore. That made it difficult for me to fully appreciate the conclusion. So a good 3 out of 5 Stars for me!