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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.
"Brilliantly strange... As the workers toil and their voices blur, it all leads to a question simultaneously outraged and amused: ""What the hell is wrong with the world?"" * Guardian * This is captivating, disquieting prose... Into this relentless tension, Oyamada weaves flashes of dark humour... Dreamlike and dizzying... this short, powerful book poses important questions about the terrifying futility of corporate jobs and our role in the world * Financial Times * Strangely chilling * New York Times * A stirring portrait of modern work-life culture * TIME Magazine * [A] stellar, mind-bending debut * Publishers Weekly * A very smart commentary on working life * United by Pop * An elegant and often funny sketch of 21stcentury corporate life... Oyamada casts an unflinching eye on climate catastrophe and the failure of humans to avert it... Yet for all its dark undercurrents, The Factory is not bleak * Literary Review * Ideal for those seeking a retreat into Kafka/Beckett-type absurdism * Strong Words Sunday Book Club newsletter * By the time we reach the suitably bizarre ending, the author has effectively portrayed the confounding maze of modern capitalism to which there is a clearly marked entry point but no exit * Irish Times * One of the mysteries that keeps the reader hooked is that of the factory itself: a nameless, giant industrial complex set somewhere in modern-day provincial Japan... The final twist might not come as a surprise, but it is surprisingly eerie, and stays with you long after you finish reading * TLS * Oyamada takes the reader on the same absurd, confusing journey as the workers... This way, the author mirrors how surreal, monotonous, and soul crushing the modern workplace seems to many of us * NB magazine *"
