Sayaka Murata was a fan of manga and novels for girls and started writing fiction while still in elementary school. She became serious about her vocation during college, and made her debut as a writer in 2003 when Junyū (Breast-Feeding), a short story, received a merit award in the Gunzō Prize for New Writers competition. She continued writing while supporting herself with odd jobs like clerking at convenience stores, and in 2009 won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Gin iro no uta (Silver Song). In 2013, she took the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City). With her unusual style and her ability to penetrate disturbingly far into the recesses of contemporary female psychology, she is one of the rising stars of women’s writing.
Genres: Literary Fiction
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Sayaka Murata recommends
Solo Dance (2022)
Li Kotomi
"It takes only a moment for the idea of death to spark in a heart pushed to its limits. All that remains is that spark and the deep breathing of our narrator who has had to live in the dark. The vicious pain that squirms beautifully at the heart of this novel holds an incredible power, perhaps becoming a salvation for the reader."
The Woman in the Purple Skirt (2021)
Natsuko Imamura
"Very powerful . . . Meticulous and extremely precise . . . Reading this book made me feel like I was in an unstable and strange world."
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