Diary of a Void

by David Boyd, Emi Yagi, Lucy North · 2022

Diary of a Void follows thirty‑four‑year‑old Ms. Shibata, the sole woman at a Tokyo cardboard‑tube factory, as she confronts relentless sexism and endless overtime. When she finally declares she’s pregnant—a lie she never intended to keep—her coworkers’ attitudes shift dramatically: she’s excused from menial chores, spared overtime, and even invited to prenatal classes. Written as a diary that mirrors Japan’s Maternal and Child Health Handbook, the novel turns this deception into a sharp, witty exploration of female interiority, workplace power dynamics, and the lengths one will go to claim agency. A subversive, darkly comic debut, it offers a fresh, unsettling look at how a single falsehood can rewrite a woman’s reality.