Poetic, hilarious and an amusing mixture of the mundane and the absurd, the short stories definitely make you wonder how unreal, eerie and yet creative the author is.

Murata’s breaking of the fourth wall is almost a kind gesture, a disclosure of her own literary tactics that reveals how easy it is to manipulate others into accepting ideologies. People attach no shame to the act of sex and apparently it is perfectly normal to walk down a street and see pools of semen all over the pavement. Murata’s prose, in this translation from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, is generally so cool you could chill a bottle of wine in it. I can’t really explain them as the best part of reading it was going in with no expectations and then having literal jaw dropping reactions as the unusual part of the story was revealed.The story quickly develops into a harsh tale containing themes of "sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism. Though some stories are a bit disturbing the collection is addictive and engaging and Murata pushes her imagination (and the readers') to extreme limits- blurring the distinction between normal and abnormal.

This sort of shift is also represented in the first story, A First-Rate Material, where human remains have been repurposed into clothing and furniture. The increased likelihood of precipitation is supported heavily as well as the likelihood of cockroaches remaining as the Earth's only surviving species if climate change was left unaddressed. They’re simply told, with a minimum of brush strokes, yet somehow result in immersive, rich, imagined worlds. Other pieces highlight Murata’s fascination with the magical or the speculative, such as the stand-out title piece Life Ceremony a macabre, disquieting portrait of a future where climate change, or some other disaster, has led to a shrinking population and the formation of a society in which cannibalism and ritual procreation are now defining practices.

I think different styles of foods through culture and the way that different cultures make food are so commonly criticized and I think that this could have definitely talked about it a bit more. I passed him the bag containing the pair of wineglasses from Aya and Yumi, put down my purse and the bag of groceries, and took off my duffle coat. As I stood there in my silk undershirt feeling miserable, I felt Naoki put his arms around me from behind. An absolutely brilliantly written story, this echoes the messed up nature of her previous and powerful Earthlings.

Our main character initially claims that she is not keen on the practice but when a colleague she cares for dies suddenly she relishes the meal his relatives make him into.Many of the stories in “Life Ceremony” are set in societies with norms that the reader may find repulsive and bizarre, yet the characters’ innocent belief in them subversively allays the reader’s alertness.

I can’t either, but it’s not just human hair—he doesn’t like any fashion accessories or furnishings made from human materials, I said, forcing a smile. In Life Ceremony, Murata’s first collection of short stories to appear in English, her narratives are conspicuously weirder, weird in the sense of weird tales—dark and macabre, surprising and strange. In 2013 she won the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no ( Of Bones, Of Body Heat, Of Whitening City), and in 2014 the Special Prize of the Sense of Gender Award. I recently watched and was blown away by Titane which definitely delivers on the body horror and the body is abject front.I really recommend that chandelier with scales made from human nails for your living room, but I suppose we’re going to have to settle for this glass one. Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. He lived in a neighborhood close to where he worked, with office blocks alongside conveniently located residential condos.