Earthlings

A Novel

By: Sayaka Murata

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

• Amazon Editor’s Top Pick
• Bustle Pick
• Vulture.com Pick

As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest, a place that couldn’t be more different from her grey commuter town. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial and that every night he searches the sky for the spaceship that might take him back to his home planet. Natsuki wonders if she might be an alien too.

Back in her city home, Natsuki is scolded or ignored and even preyed upon by a young teacher at her cram school. As she grows up in a hostile, violent world, she consoles herself with memories of her time with Yuu and discovers a surprisingly potent inner power. Natsuki seems forced to fit into a society she deems a “baby factory,” but even as a married woman she wonders if there is more to this world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them.

Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling world and cements Sayaka Murata’s status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.

©2018 Sakaya Murata (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

please please create a sequel with a happy ending

it was great, except the ending. if your considering this book just end it a chapter early and it's awesome btw. but for people like myself... please create a happy ending. Perhaps the main character gets a job in a convience store

The weirdest book I have listened to

It starts off really strong and extremely intense, giving me a few of the most scaring minutes of my life, and then it twists off in a weird story that I don't think I can fully comprehend. There are definitely elements which make this an amazing book with great views of the society, but even so, if you're not ready to be thrown through mud and washed in cold water, don't listen to this.

Very good book, but narrating voice leaves something to be desired

The book was disturbing and uncomfortable and gripping from beginning to end. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion. So many horrific moments in this books. Child abuse, CSA, pedophilia, neglect, incest, murder, cannibalism, extreme dissociation, misogyny, oppression and conforming to societal pressure. This book is provocative and absurd in a way that left me feeling furious and filled with anguish and dread at times, and then immediately cold and empty at others. And it’s striking because for most of the book (with the exception of the ending) it isn’t really even that unbelievable.

Truly a harrowing read.

The narrator Nancy Wu however has chosen to commit to these awful faux Japanese accents for the grandparent and in-law characters. As someone who interacts with many Japanese speakers on a regular basis, it felt over-caricaturized and was genuinely painful to listen to. Very distracting and ultimately completely unnecessary. Whenever those characters appeared I was more off put by these voices than the content of the actual story, which is saying something.

Brain blend

This book took all of my thoughts and emotions and put it into a blender. Interesting story with unexpected twists and turns. Strong adult themes, so beware.

Incredibly Uncomfortable Read

very uncomfortable read but a good story! I would definitely go into it being aware of the following triggers: Cannibalism, child abuse, pedophilia