Earthlings

*Earthlings* is Sayaka Murata's second novel to be translated into English, a brilliantly bizarre follow up to *Convenience Store Woman* , which has sold over 60,000 copies in all formats in our edition, and over one million copies worldwide. Her audience is primed for this astonishing follow-up. With this second book, Sayaka Murata has established herself as a master chronicler of the outsider experience. Like *Convenience Store Woman* , *Earthlings* highlights how we all take for granted the many insanities and hypocrisies of our modern world, including our attitudes to work, procreation, love, taboos, and death.

*Convenience Store Woman* was the sleeper hit of summer 2018; Murata was profiled in the *New York Times* , the novel was shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and longlisted for the *Believer* Book Award and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, named a Best Book of the Year by outlets including the *New Yorker* , the *Minneapolis Star Tribune* , and *Buzzfeed* , and selected as both an Indies Introduce title and an Amazon Best Book of the Month.

*Convenience Store Woman* was a word of mouth success, extending to seven reprints in hardcover and three in paperback. We have built a major audience for Murata, one that continues to build steadily with very strong continuing sales each week, even more than a year out from original publication. Sayaka Murata has fans from Dwight Garner to Sally Rooney to Viet Thanh Nguyen to Elif Batuman to Ruth Ozeki. *Earthlings* will speak to her existing fans as well as appeal to those readers of dark, weird fiction by writers like Ottessa Moshfegh and Kelly Link. The star of *Earthlings* , Natsuki, is as memorable a protagonist as convenience store worker Keiko Furukura. Natsuki resists conforming to what she calls the "Baby Factory," the societal expectation of people to have children, just like animals. Natsuki believes she is from another planet and doesn't know how to behave like an earthling. We have again sublicensed UK & Commonwealth rights to Granta in the UK. *Convenience Store Woman* performed fantastically there, selling over 100,000 copies in all formats and being named the Best Book of the Year by Foyles in the Fiction category. Sayaka Murata intends to come for a short tour around publication, organized by the Japan Foundation.