The release date for the English version of 'The Woman in the Purple Skirt' by
Natsuko Imamura is Jun 2021. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
One of Japan's most celebrated young authors' best-selling novels is a prize-winning work of psychological intrigue and obsession about two mysterious single women, one of whom manipulates the other from a distance.
The Woman in the Purple Skirt goes to the park almost every day and buys herself a solitary cream bun. She sits on a seat and eats it while the neighborhood kids make fun of her. The unnoticed narrator, the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, keeps constant observation on her. The Woman in the Purple Skirt appears to be a schoolgirl from a distance, but her hair is stiff and dry, and her face has age spots. She shares the same characteristics as the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan: she is impoverished, single, and resides in a small, dilapidated apartment. She is lured to a position as a hotel cleaner by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan; before long, the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the manager. Sadly, nobody is aware of or interested in the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's what sets her apart from the Woman in the Purple Skirt.
The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a tense, voyeuristic tale about the sometimes-desperate need to be seen that tackles the dynamics of envy, the workings of power, and the vulnerability of single women in an incredibly creative, frightening, and deadpan manner.