Life Ceremony

Stories

By: Sayaka Murata

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi, Nancy Wu, Natalie Naudus, Eunice Wong, Pun Bandhu

The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.

In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the audience's interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In “A First-Rate Material,” Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can’t stand the conventional use of deceased people’s bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. “Lovers on the Breeze” is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child’s bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. “Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in.

In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

©2019 by Sayaka Murata. English translation © 2022 by Ginny Tapley Takemori (P)2022 by Blackstone Publishing

Really caught my attention

A unique twist on we humans. Made me think about my relationship with humans and our relationship with food.

Fun and thought provoking

Great book with a few fun and thought provoking stories, though a couple of the stories were a bit underwhelming in comparison to the seemingly more developed and thought through stories it was still a good experience.
As for the narration I found the second narrators voice a bit grating and the narration robotic, otherwise a great listen.

Addicted

I’m so hooked on this author. The perspective is completely unique—askew but still sweet in a strange way. I want to read everything.

Will have you questioning..

I really enjoy this author and their ability to create a different pov and make it seem like the norm, will have you questioning societal norms and how we adapt to them. enjoyable short stories overall that are strange

Weird but interesting

Like the last two books I have read from this author, it is straight-up weird.

Enriching yet thought provoking

Love the ideas presented. Murata has a way to twist everyday customs/traditions into a dark mass wrapped in a lovely bow.

Disturbingly beautiful

Murata's style is so unique, and I always end up loving it. She is well on her way to becoming one of my all-time favorite authors.

Convenience Store woman continues to engage the reader

These stories continue to explore what it means to be human now, in the past, and in times to come. The direct style when dealing with subject matter taken to extremes is very effective.

read if ur autistic

my favorite is the last one, hatchling. its about social masking. this author makes me feel seen

Interesting concept but boring story

Like I said in the title the concept is very interesting but the history in itself is very boring and weird. Weird in a bad way because there’s lots of weird stories that are captivating, but this one is very dull