The Woman in the Purple Skirt

A defiant and hysterical ode to the power of the woman alone. ― CrimeReads

Part psychological thriller, part study of endemic loneliness . . . a clever, wry and disturbing piece of fiction [and] a sharp examination of personality and persona and the small terrors of everyday life. -- Catherine Taylor ― Irish Times

Horrifying, humorous, whimsical, and disturbing . . . It will remain with you. ― Tokyo Shimbun

A novel unlike anything that's come before it . . . This strange and unsettling story about control and paranoia will likely take 2021 by storm. ― Metropolis

Delightfully disturbing . . . Imamura does weird singularly well, and keeps the suspense taut throughout. ― Yahoo!Life

Disquieting and wryly funny, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession. -- Paula Hawkins

Imamura offers her reader crisp, refreshing prose. The Woman in the Purple Skirt will keep you firmly in its grips with its persistent, disquieting, matter-of-fact style. -- Oyinkan Braithwaite

A breathless novel that depicts with sly humor the strange relationship between two women in contemporary Japan. You too will be obsessed with the Woman in the Purple Skirt and held in suspense until the last page. -- Leila Slimani

Very powerful . . . Meticulous and extremely precise . . . Reading this book made me feel like I was in an unstable and strange world. -- Sayaka Murata

Imamura definitely has a rare talent for depicting people who are a little out of the ordinary. . . . By the time I got to the end, a powerful sense of the narrator's loneliness forcing its way through the madness gripped my heart. -- Yoko Ogawa

Reading this novel, you can really hear Natsuko Imamura's unique voice, which comes across quite unsparingly and beautifully. -- Hiromi Kawakami

A superb story . . . I was mesmerized by this narrator. Unlikable men who hold our sympathy are frequently found in fiction, but I don't think I've ever encountered a woman as unappealing as this one who still managed to keep me completely beguiled. -- Suichi Yoshida

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is like a love story overheard on a park bench. It's a thriller about commutes, work schedules, and unemployment. It's a bottle of hotel shampoo that makes its way into your shower, and you can't seem to remember how it got there. What profound and giddy prose; I could not put this book down. Imamura is a glorious architect of perspective, surprising and breaking this reader's heart at every turn. -- Hilary Leichter

I tore through this novel. Grippingly and intimately told, with prose as tight as a wire, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a quick and powerful jab to the heart. -- Jami Attenberg

Delightful, droll, and menacing, this novel about a seemingly harmless obsession could be the love child of Eugene Ionesco and Patricia Highsmith. -- Kelly Link

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