Careless

by Hiroko Oyamada, Lucy North (Translator)

‘As I lay on the mattress, the white toe pads of the gecko floated up before me, against the vastness of the blue-black night. Rather than a presence, it seemed to me more like a trace, a barely discernible odour that flooded in on the air.’

Short story first published in the literary magazine Shincho (新潮), January 2015 issue, and later included in Oyamada’s short story collection 庭 (Niwa, or 'Garden'), published March 2018.

First published in English translation by Granta in September 2019.

Genres: Japanese Literature

ebook

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Hiroko Oyamada (小山田浩子) is a Japanese author. She won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for The Factory, which was drawn from her experiences working as a temp for an automaker’s subsidiary. Her following novel, The Hole, won the Akutagawa Prize.