Abstract

“Hollow Inside” is a short novel that follows the life of Hirai, a 38 year old woman, over the course of a year as she comes to terms with the fact she is just not cut out for marriage and kids.

The novel opens with her room mate, a 42-year-old woman called Suganuma, busy with her 3D printer making custom dog figurines of beloved pets who have died. The cheap printer, not really meant for home use, is installed in a corner of their living room, and produces white plastic models of dogs that are hollow and surprisingly light, which are then sent to someone else for painting, before being delivered to the customer.

Hirai works in a nondescript job in the accounts department of a printing company in Yokohama. She met Suganuma through work, and the two women had bonded over their shared love for a popular boy band and over time had become friends, going out drinking together once a month or so. Both women have been working for a couple of decades, but neither of them earn enough to be able to afford a decent-sized apartment, and so Suganuma proposes to Hirai that they share an apartment in order to economize and be able to live more comfortably.

Author’s Information

Asako Otani is one of the new crop of young Japanese women writers tacking feminist issues. Hollow Inside is her debut work, and it won the 2022 Subaru Literature Prize.