The Hole

When Asa's husband is offered a new job away from the city, the couple end up relocating. And since his new office is very close to his family's home, it makes sense to move in next door to his parents.

Through the long hot summer, Asa does her best to adjust to their new rural lives, to the constant presence of her in-laws, to the emptiness of her existence and the incessant buzz of cicadas. And then one day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole - a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her.

Thus begins a series of bizarre experiences that drive Asa deeper into the mysteries of this rural landscape and the family she has married in to, leading her to question her role in this world and, eventually, who she even is.

A great book -- Patti Smith Surreal and mesmerizing New York Times A haunting and transformative work of fiction -- Laura van den Berg A rare literary page-turner -- Monique Truong

Born in Hiroshima in 1983, HIROKO OYAMADA is the author of The Factory - winner of the Shincho Prize for New Writers - and The Hole, for which she won Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize, and Weasels in the Attic.

DAVID BOYD is an award-winning translator, and Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina. He has translated fiction by Izumi Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa and Kanoko Okamoto, among others, and is translating the novels of Mieko Kawkami alongside Sam Bett.

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