Earthlings

About

As a child, Natsuki believes she is an alien from Planet Popinpobopia — a fantasy that shields her from a reality of sexual abuse by her teacher and emotional neglect at home. During summers at her grandparents' house in the mountains, she forms a fierce pact with her cousin Yuu: they are aliens together, and the rules of Earth don't apply to them. Decades later, Natsuki has survived into adulthood through a sexless marriage of convenience, but the alien logic of her childhood hasn't faded — it has hardened. When she, Yuu, and her husband retreat to the abandoned family house, they attempt to live entirely outside human norms, and the novel follows them past every boundary you think it won't cross. Where Convenience Store Woman found a gentle accommodation with society, this is the opposite: Murata asking what happens when the accommodation fails, and the answer is as disturbing as it is logical.