The Hole

A woman moves to live with her in-laws in the Japanese countryside in this haunting and surreal novel featuring a mysterious relative, an elusive hairy creature, and lots of strange holes – from the author of Weasels in the Attic

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.

About the Author

Born in Hiroshima in 1983, Hiroko Oyamada a is the author of two novellas: The Factory, which won the Shincho Prize for New Writers, and The Hole, which won Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize. Oyamada has also written numerous short stories and essays.

About the Translator

David Boyd is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in the USA. He has translated novels and stories by Hiroko Oyamada, Masatsugu Ono and Toh EnJoe, among others. His translation of Hideo Furukawa’s Slow Boat (Pushkin Press, 2017) won the 2017/2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.

Dimensions: 12.9 x 0.51 x 19.81 cm