The Woman in the Purple Skirt

About

The Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench every day, and the narrator — the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan — watches her with an attention that crosses every line between admiration and obsession. When the narrator engineers a job for the purple-skirted woman at her own workplace, what seems like helpfulness reveals itself as something far more controlling and unsettling. Imamura's novel is a masterclass in unreliable narration, where the reader slowly realizes that the person telling the story is the most dangerous person in it. The prose is calm, meticulous, and deeply creepy — a surveillance report written by someone who doesn't understand why their behavior might be alarming. A novel about watching — and the terrifying intimacy of being known by someone you've never noticed.