BOXBOXBOXBOX

by Wan Sakamoto, 坂本湾

デビュー作にして第174回芥川賞候補作！　第62回文藝賞受賞作。
宅配所に流れる箱を仕分ける安（あん）。ある箱の中身を見た瞬間から次々に箱が消えていって――顔なき作業員たちの倦怠と衝動を描き、新時代の〈労働〉を暴くベルトコンベア・サスペンス。
「私」であることを必要とされない労働において、「私」を保ち続けることはいかにして可能か？時代の閉塞感をこれでもかと執拗に抉りだす圧巻のデビュー作。

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature

120 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 2025

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, if you're unaware, focuses around boxes. People who handle boxes. A warehouse where they move, you guess it, boxes! Without even having to read the book you can tell the title itself reiterates the sense of how monotonous and reptitive work can feel. BOXBOXBOXBOX. Honestly, as simple as it is, the title on its own works as a great way to reiterate the themes of the book.

The plot reminds me of proletarian fiction such as The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, it has that same unusual atmosphere, with a seemingly ordinary workplace, and just as ordinary people. But, the atmosphere in the warehouse is dire from the get go, it feels so detached and impersonal, and the ever present mist lays a heavy blanket over the workers. It keeps them isolated from each other and singularly focused on the boxes running down the line. With little to no connection to the other people in the warehouse, our main characters face their own challenges that mount until a breaking point.

Even though the book itself was written with the Japanese work environment in mind, it translates worldwide easily. The isolation that comes with work, especially for people in courier and warehouse jobs, can't be understated. When we live in a society, globally, that prioritises efficiency over any human element we can feel like part of a monolith at our jobs. Wan Sakamoto does this really well in such a short amount of pages, not just looking at this issue on a surface level, they manage to show what else arises as people struggle through the jobs that give them little to no joy. We see characters struggling with alcoholism, stealing, work-stress induced health issues and the like.

As for the writing itself, I really enjoyed the way Sakamoto wrote this. There's a bit of a dream state to it, where you question sometimes if somethings happening or not, or if it's happening the way the character is telling you it is. I am a big fan of fiction that deals with ordinary settings but injects a surreal feel, almost like magic realism. Aside from the writing, I got that feeling from the mist. It felt alive to me honestly, it felt like the warden of the warehouse, as though *its* job was to keep all the employees seperated and I really loved this element. It was like its own character and it adds something really different to the story.

I think this book is something that, if you're interested in the topics, and like your fiction a bit weird you'll really enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

BOXBOXBOXBOX is a very matter-of-fact, stripped-back story set in a warehouse where we follow An as he works gruelling shifts sorting parcels. The writing is simplistic and to the point, with events initially presented almost as a list of things that happen. It creates a sense of the monotony and dehumanisation of the environment.

Throughout, we see An imagining what might be inside the parcels passing through the factory as a form of entertainment to get him through his shifts. It gives him something to focus on within an otherwise completely repetitive existence and highlights just how little stimulation or humanity there is in his working environment.

The story does move between different characters quite abruptly at times, which I found slightly jarring. But we get glimpses into the lives of these various people like other employees on the line and a supervisor, and we also see what mechanisms they turn to so they can cope, including alcoholism and stealing. The supervisor attempts to be kind and through her we see how some individuals try to inject hope and humanity into a soulless system such as this, but ultimately she’s worn down, burnt out and unsuccessful. There isn't much sense of hope anywhere beyond this. Even those who manage to leave toward the end for other jobs seem to find themselves in situations that are only marginally better, with the same underlying sense of meaningless and unrewarding work.

I kept expecting something strange or absurd to happen. There was a feeling throughout that the story was building towards something more surreal, especially with the inclusion of the mist on the factory floor, but ultimately it remained rooted in reality.

Overall I really enjoyed the themes presented in this story and I feel the writing style supported them well. For such a short read, it’s impressive how well demonstrated the themes are, and it’s a debut too!

I received an eARC from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving this review.

[Jules · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

BOXBOXBOXBOX, as I’m sure you guessed, is mostly about boxes. It follows four individuals working in an eerie, dominating depot who are trying to protect their individuality in a rather mind numbing job. They spend their days directing incoming shipments to their correct destinations and trying to avoid being audibly assaulted by the voice in the sky encouraging them, not so gently, to stay on task. The perspectives shift remarkably smoothly, leading this already short book to fly right by. Of the four employees we hear from, I was most intrigued following An. His shameless curiosity at what is inside the boxes leads him on a deeply emotional journey that piqued my own curiosity as well. BOXBOXBOXBOX was a startling reminder of the surety that, for these corporations and mega businesses, their work will go on and on despite what happens to the individuals that keep their processes going. It also provided a hopeful conclusion that, through community, we can all hold on to our humanity, despite it all.
Thank you to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for the early digital copy. These are my honest thoughts.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOXBOXBOXBOX is a short but atmospheric and thought-provoking work. We are launched immediately into the world of the sorting warehouse staff where everyone gets through their shifts in their own ways, alone and mostly silent, separated from one another by a pervasive mist that seeps continually through the building. Perhaps mirroring the mist, the four POVs switch constantly, even from paragraph to paragraph, weaving in an out of one other in a way I found a little off-putting at first but quickly got used to. Despite the short time we spend with them, each character feels individual and well rounded, and all represent different facets of modern working life. These real-life hardships and problems are presented through a lens of fairly dark humour that, coupled with the ever-present mist, gives everything a sense of the uncanny. This is certainly a very different style work and one I will remember for a long time. I am giving it 4 stars.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Reluctantly.Adulting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stifling, atmospheric, suffocating and just overall unpleasant but engrossing. Still don’t know which way it ended.

[Maya · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with the ARC.
Pub Date Jun 22 2027
Didn’t work for me at all. Basically, nothing happens, the characters are one dimensional and I couldn’t connect to any of them. I expected this to be more dystopian or sci-fi. The atmosphere was good and sinister, but the narrative was stiff and clinical. It reads very fast though. I expected some crazy things to happen, but alas, only one horror dream in about three sentences and that was it. You could say it is a modern workplace horror, but it wasn’t my kind of thing. Being compared to Olga Ravn’s The Employees and Severance the TV show is very far-fetched.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for review.

I found this delightful in the most mundane way possible. We follow four characters within this cloying oppressive warehouse going about their daily work with a pained efficency all seemingly desperate to find an escape from something whether that be their daily work or themselves.

As someone who has worked in a similar environment I did connect with some elements of the story and can say that I have met each one of these four character during my own time in a warehouse. Written with a simple, yet blunt prose I flew through this.