Staff Pick
The Forest Brims Over is the first of Ayase's novels to be translated into English, and both the themes and writing style remind me of Han Kang's The Vegetarian. Ayase's approach to examining gender roles and exploitation in the literary world via magical realism was interwoven throughout in a way that never felt jarring to the plot. I appreciated the varied perspectives within this book and the different self-reflections this allowed for in internal character dialogue. The novel's gentle fluidity moves the reader along and culminates in an unexpected but lovely end that provided enough closure to be satisfying while leaving plenty of open-endedness for further pondering. Recommended By Charlotte S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A woman turns herself into a forest after long being co-opted to serve as the subject of her husband's novels — this surrealist fable challenges traditional gender attitudes and exploitation in the literary world
Nowatari Rui has long been the subject of her husband's novels, depicted as a pure woman who takes great pleasure in sex. With her privacy and identity continually stripped away, she has come to be seen by society first and foremost as the inspiration for her husband's art. When a decade's worth of frustrations reaches its boiling point, Rui consumes a bowl of seeds, and buds and roots begin to sprout all over her body.
Instead of taking her to a hospital, her husband keeps her in an aquaterrarium, set to compose a new novel based on this unsettling experience. But Rui breaks away from her husband by growing into a forest — and in time, she takes over the entire city.
As fantasy and reality bleed together, The Forest Brims Over challenges unconscious gender biases and explores the boundaries between art and exploitation — muse abuse — in the literary world.
Review
"Ayase's inventive English-language debut offers a fantastical account of the gendered power dynamics between a writer and his muse…This smart and dreamy story will leave English-language readers wanting more from Ayase." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A sprightly, compelling tale with magical realist flair in which a novelist's muse takes charge of her own story." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This surrealist story mixes botanist wonder, compelling characters, a bitter, ironic humor, and a wild, untamable feminine anger that together make the book a thought-provoking and quick read." Booklist
About the Author
Maru Ayase has published seventeen books, many of which have been finalists for major awards in Japan. The Forest Brims Over is her first title to be translated into English.
Haydn Trowell is an Australian literary translator of modern and contemporary Japanese fiction. His translations include Touring the Land of the Dead and Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada, The Mud of a Century by Yuka Ishii, and The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata.