Staff Pick
Terminal Boredom: what phrase could better describe the tepid yet frenetic aura of modern life? This collection, originally written in the 1980s and newly available in English, fizzles with dark, punky magnetism. The reader is seamlessly initiated into Suzuki's universe of fantastical queer landscapes, green-haired aliens, and societies in which people are cryogenically frozen into the dreams of the living as a form of population control. Recommended By Nadia N., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Thrillist, The Millions, Frieze, and Metropolis Japan The first English language publication of the work of Izumi Suzuki, a legend of Japanese science fiction and a countercultural icon
At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.
Translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O'Horan.