Diary of a Void: A Novel

US: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023. Paperback. New. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker · NPR · WBEZ's Nerdette · The New Y ork Public Library · Literary Hub A New York Times Editors' Choice "One of the most passionate cases I've ever read for female interiority, fo r women's creative pulse and rich inner life." --Katy Waldman, The New York er "Always expect the unexpected when you're not expecting." --Sloane Crosley A woman in Tokyo avoids harassment at work by perpetuating, for nine months and beyond, the lie that she's pregnant in this prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about the mother of all deceptions, for fans of Conv enience Store Woman and Breasts and Eggs When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job to escape sexual haras sment at her old one, she finds that as the only woman at her new workplace --a manufacturer of cardboard tubes--she is expected to do all the menial t asks. One day she announces that she can't clear away her coworkers' dirty cups--because she's pregnant and the smell nauseates her. The only thing is . . . Ms. Shibata is not pregnant. Pregnant Ms. Shibata doesn't have to serve coffee to anyone. Pregnant Ms. S hibata isn't forced to work overtime. Pregnant Ms. Shibata rests, watches T V, takes long baths, and even joins an aerobics class for expectant mothers . She's finally being treated by her colleagues as more than a hollow core. But she has a nine-month ruse to keep up. Before long, it becomes all-abso rbing, and with the help of towel-stuffed shirts and a diary app that track s every stage of her "pregnancy," the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve. Surreal and absurdist, and with a winning matter-o.