A Japanese office worker fakes a pregnancy to get fair treatment on the job Shibata is a thirty-four year old office worker. She performs a colourless administrative role for a company that makes cardboard cones. Her male co-workers have simply assumed that she will also do all the menial office tasks, such as cleaning up after them. One day when she is asked to clear away coffee cups she reaches her breaking point. A lie spontaneously bursts from her lips. She announces she’s pregnant and can’t abide the smell of coffee. It makes her sick. Suddenly her life is made much easier. Everyone is solicitous of her health and well being. And she gets plenty of maternity leave. There is now time to cook decent meals and look after herself properly. She even joins a pregnant women’s aerobic club and starts socialising with a group of soon-to-be mums. While life improves, it also gets weirder. How long can she keep up such a lie? Diary of a Void is magazine editor Emi Yagi’s first novel. Like so much modern Japanese fiction, it concentrates on the banalities of office work and the minutiae of urban life. The story’s unusual idea, of a feigned pregnancy to get out of work, keeps the story kicking along as the reader wonders how long the ruse can be kept up. A quirky, yet quietly mad story of personal desperation. Diary of a Void, by Emi Yagi. Published by Harvill / Secker. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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