ISBN: 9780811228855
Author: Hiroko Oyamada

Translated from Japanese by David Boyd

Publisher Information: New Directions

Publication Date: 2019/10/29

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Title: 工場

Japanese Version ISBN: 9784101205427

Author: 小山田浩子 | Hiroko Oyamada

Japanese Publisher Information: 新潮文庫 | Shinchosha Bunko

Japanese Publication Date: 2018/09/01

Topical Subject Header: Fiction

The Factory

$19.00

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The English-language debut of one of Japan's most exciting new writers, The Factory follows three workers at a sprawling industrial factory. Each worker focuses intently on the specific task they've been assigned: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. But their lives slowly become governed by their work—days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while—it could be weeks or years—the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here?

With hints of Kafka and unexpected moments of creeping humor, The Factory casts a vivid—and sometimes surreal—portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.
Born in Hiroshima in 1983, Hiroko Oyamada won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for The Factory, which was drawn from her experiences working as a temp for an automaker’s subsidiary. Her following novel, The Hole, won the Akutagawa Prize.

小山田浩子（おやまだひろこ、1983年11月2日 - ）は、日本の小説家。広島県広島市佐伯区生まれ[1]。広島大学文学部日本文学語学講座卒業。広島市在住。
David Boyd is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has translated stories by Genichiro Takahashi, Masatsugu Ono and Toh EnJoe, among others. His translation of Hideo Furukawa’s Slow Boat won the 2017/2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. With Sam Bett, he is cotranslating the novels of Mieko Kawakami.
大河が南北を隔てる巨大工場は、ひとつの街に匹敵する規模をもち、環境に順応した固有動物さえ生息する。ここで牛山佳子は書類廃棄に励み、佳子の兄は雑多な書類に赤字を施し、古笛青年は屋上緑化に相応しいコケを探す。しかし、精励するほどに謎はきざす。この仕事はなぜ必要なのか……。緻密に描き出される職場に、夢想のような日常が浮かぶ表題作ほか 2 作。新潮新人賞、織田作之助賞受賞。