The Free-Range Bookclub
Bookclubbers without boundaries in Nelson, New Zealand
Diary Of A Void – Emi Yagi
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Jodie
A translated work in which a Japanese office worker fakes a pregnancy to avoid menial cleaning and tidying jobs that her male counterparts are never burdened with. However, the hoax becomes all-absorbing, and the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve. A novel which examines gender roles and societal traditions in Japan.
Once I started wearing dresses to work I was now unmistakably pregnant. When I walked around the office, arms full of paper core samples, coworkers from other sections would come up and offer to carry them. When I was waiting for the elevator, they’d stay back and let me get in first. I even had an old woman, a complete stranger, offer a prediction. The baby, she said, would be arriving “next week”. “Um, the due date is May,” I said to her.
● Emi Yagi’s attempt to write a quietly political novel about the inequalities women face in Japanese society was funny and engaging. The protagonist’s impulsive decision to lie about a pregnancy to get out of tasks at work grows into a personal rebellion against society. Yes there is a new life growing inside of Shibata, her own life, of which she has more control over during her fake pregnancy. I loved this novel and am pleased Yagi chose to highlight the injustices Japanese women face every day. – Jodie
● Diary of a Void initially felt quite playful and fun as Shibata engaged in a lie that meant she was no longer responsible for so many of the menial tasks that came with being the only female at her workplace. While her colleagues, new friends and the reader were pulled deeper into her deception I felt my smile become a bit more forced as the good humour at the start of the novel gave way to some uncomfortable observations about women’s role in Japanese society. – Suzy
● Diary of a Void started off as a bit of a lark. Ms. Shibata has a dry, cutting sense of humour and I laughed at her inner thoughts and the lengths she went to to fake a pregnancy. But once the author has captured you with humour she throws a few contemplative curve balls to ponder. There’s moral questionability, objectification and judgement of women, and the consequences of loneliness. This transition from lark to societal and political is so well done, as is the soft genre shift from realist to surrealist to a magical realist. I finished the book in a different mindset as to how I started it. I loved the journey and every part of the story, including the shocking and appropriate ending. – Rachel
● Shibata, the main character in Diary of a Void, is funny and sweet and unfortunately desperate to relieve the awful gender expectations of her demanding work role. The crazy idea to pretend to be pregnant slowly seems more and more real as time goes on. I questioned whether she really was pregnant which, as it turns out, was one of the author’s goals. This book has a brilliant ending to a social challenge of Japanese societal expectations of women. – Jo
Published in Japanese 2020
Translated into English by David Boyd & Lucy North 2022
Penguin Random House
213 pages
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The Free-Range Bookclub 
Warmly humorous and playful, highlights not just how women are expected to pick up the drudge work but how the whole culture of overwork is taken for granted and what happens to health and wellbeing when that stops. Slyly takes us on a ride as well as her workmates.
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