Fiction – Short Stories – Feminist – Literary – World Literature – Japan

RELEASE DATEL 9/2/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE)

TRANSLATED FROM THE JAPANESE BY: Polly Barton

Tales from Japan that blend humor, surrealism, and sharp societal critique, by the acclaimed author of Where the Wild Ladies Are

Piercing and sometimes surreal… Matsuda shines.Publishers Weekly

In The Woman Dies, renowned author Aoko Matsuda approaches often-thorny subjects such as sexism, prejudice, the normalizing effect of violence against women on screen, or the aesthetics associated with technology, with an inventiveness and quirky humor that keep these stories on the thrilling cusp between seriousness and levity.

Wordplay evolves into something much more complex, inanimate objects are endowed with their own point of view, and hard-hitting feminist stances are conveyed with a dry, detached humor that makes them even more undeniable.

Not so much a rollercoaster ride, rather an entire theme park, The Woman Dies is an out-of-the ordinary space readers will step into with feelings of wonder and discombobulation in equal parts.

AUTHOR BIO:

Aoko Matsudais a writer and translator. In 2013, her debut book,Stackable, was nominated for the Mishima Yukio Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize. In 2019, her short story “The Woman Dies,” published byGrantaonline, was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award. In 2021, her short story collectionWhere the Wild Ladies Are,published by Soft Skull Press,was highly praised by theBBC,Guardian,New York Times, andNew Yorker, and was selected as one of the 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 byTIME. It was nominated for a Ray Bradbury Prize, sponsored by theLA Times, and won the Firecracker Award in the fiction category and the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 2021. She has translated work by Karen Russell, Amelia Gray, and Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese.

TRANSLATOR BIO:

Polly Bartonis a translator of Japanese literature and non-fiction, currently based in Bristol. Her most recent full-length translations include the international bestsellerButterby Asako Yuzuki andSpring Gardenby Tomoka Shibasaki (Pushkin Press). She has translatedWhere the Wild Ladies Areby Aoko Matsuda for Tilted Axis/Soft Skull Press. Her debut non-fiction work,Fifty Sounds, was published in the US by Liveright in April 2022.