This was an interesting read. The narrator who calls herself the woman in the yellow cardigan is lonely. She describes in details what she sees in the Woman in the Purple Skirt , she watches her and reader does the same thing too. Not much happens in this voyeuristic story and that what makes it interesting,

Well the only good thing that I have to say is that at least this was a short book. It was all just kind of pointless, so little really happens and we don’t get to scratch behind the surface of any of the characters. This book was just not for me at all.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Literary Fiction | Fiction

Release Date: Expected 3rd June 2021

Everybody knows the Woman in the Purple Skirt - she appears neither old nor young, she is not attractive or successful, but she is oddly familiar and people notice her. But nobody notices the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. Nobody notices as she watches the Woman in the Purple Skirt sitting on her reserved bench in the park every day, eating the same cream bun. Nobody notices when she lures the Woman into working as a housekeeper in the same hotel as her and documents her affair with the manager as it spirals. The Woman in the Purple Skirt is being watched at all times - and now you're watching her too.

This story was eeily comforting and darkly intrusive all at once - it is a story in which nothing really happens and nothing is resolved - but it was so uniquely charming that I finished this fairly short novella in one sitting.

We watch our pseudo-celebrity along with our narrator, as she goes about her life, slowly finding her new relationships, new identities, new chapters of her journey and find ourselves drawn in, sharing the obsession about the Woman in the Purple Skirt. It's a story about the dangers of rumours, and how quickly they can spread, about how we are constantly watching others, about the way Women are always too ugly or too beautiful, and about the thin line between obsession and delusion.


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Natsuko Inamura, Faber and Faber and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

An intriguing enough read but - for me - never digs deep enough to lift it beyond a curiosity. Would very much like to see what Imamura does next, however.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is an intriguing and at times unsettling novella that blends dark humour with the mundane in a way reminiscent of Convenience Store Woman.

A great little read that I finished in a couple of hours. It's a spiral of increasing oddness in the same vein as Convenience Store Woman and an interesting view of loneliness and voyeurism. There are times where the translation is mildly jarring, but on the whole she has a well developed voice whilst practically being a ghost.

I'm loving this trend for novellas about women living non-traditional lives, especially Japanese, and the exploration of themes of obsession, manipulation and the need for connection between women are infinitely interesting.

This short novel about obsession, translated from Japanese, is well worth a read.
The story revolves around two characters, The Woman in the Purple Skirt, and the narrator. From the outset it’s clear that the narrator is stalking The Woman in the Purple Skirt, so you as the reader become complicit with that. From watching her sit on a bench in the park, to leaving sachets of shampoo on the door of her house, its never really clear why the narrator is fixated on The Woman in the Purple Skirt, and if you’re expecting a resolution, you’ll be disappointed. That’s not to say this quick read isn’t worth it. It’s odd but it’s charming, and it certainly had me gripped all the way through.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is an unsettling novel about obsession, in which a woman who visits the same park bench every day is being watched. There is a woman in a purple skirt, a distinctive woman who seems to follow her own routine, sitting in the park every afternoon whilst children try and elicit a reaction from her. It becomes apparent that someone—the narrator—is watching her, but they want to actually know the woman, and so a strange descent into the world of the woman in the purple skirt begins.

This is a book that immediately drew me in, through its unsettling atmosphere and strange sense of observation. In some ways, the narration at least to begin with isn't different from other books introducing a quirky character, but it quickly becomes apparent that something is going on with the narrator, who is the one actually watching the titular woman. You're forced to join in the observation, watching what the narrator does, but unable to see any more. A lot of the suspense comes from not knowing why the narrator is obsessed with this woman, but also not quite being sure the rules of the game either.

For a book that raises so many questions, it is hard to put down, and as it's quite a short novel, it's quite easy to get lost in the world of the woman with the purple skirt until you emerge on the other side. I really enjoyed its distinctive atmosphere and the strange obsession at its heart.

The woman in the purple skirt is being followed and her every move watched; her stalker seems to have a plan for her but how will this end?

The novel is sedate and unhurried all whilst detailing the very real stalking of a woman who seems completelt unaware of what is going on. Both the protagonist and the woman in the purple skirt are seemingly flawed characters; the protagonist both lonely and obsessed, but I was strangely drawn to both women and finished the novel in one sitting as I had couldn't be left in suspense as to what was ultimately going to happen. A strange and gripping novel that I couldn't put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review