Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

Sayaka Murata, a Japanese author best known for her novel Convenience Store Woman delved into a strange alternate reality in her 2015 novel Vanishing World, now in a translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori. The Japan of Vanishing World is one in which artificial insemination was introduced following World War II and has led to a decline, and almost demonization, of sexual intimacy. Murata takes this premise and follows it through to some scarily believable end points in a place called Experiment City.

The main character of Vanishing World, Amane is a bit of an outsider due to the fact that she was conceived and born naturally. But she needs connection, is desperate to fit in and so does what all of her contemporaries do and falls in love with an anime character, which later becomes a slew of anime characters. Her first marriage fails because her husband wants to have sex with her – in this world husband and wife are seen as “family” so any relations between them are considered to be incest. Her second husband Saku understands the rules and both have relationships outside their marriage to fulfill their need for “love”. Amane and Saku eventually move to Experiment City where all children are raised communally and men can carry babies to term.

There are plenty of scifi ideas in Vanishing World, but what Murata is really interested in is exploring the decline of intimacy, of people who project their emptions onto fictional characters and, underlying all of this, the significantly declining birthrate in Japan. The book comes across as a thought experiment in which a single, relatively uncontroversial idea (in this case, artificial insemination) is taken to an extreme and projected over a long enough period to create some absurdist outcomes.

There is a universality to the ideas that Murata is dealing with in Vanishing World. But as with many books in translation, there are almost certainly nuanced points she is making about Japanese society in particular that are likely to pass many non-Japanese readers by. But even so, Murata has delivered a scenario that provides plenty for readers to think about.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

7.5

7.5/10