The Woman in the Purple Skirt

A Novel

By: Natsuko Imamura, Lucy North - translator

Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda

Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR · Marie Claire

“A taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession.” (Paula Hawkins, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Girl on the Train)

“[It] will keep you firmly in its grip.” (Oyinkan Braithwaite, best-selling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer)

“The love child of Eugene Ionesco and Patricia Highsmith.” (Kelly Link, best-selling author of Get in Trouble)

A best-selling, prizewinning novel by one of Japan's most acclaimed young writers, for fans of Convenience Store Woman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, and the movies Parasite and Rear Window

I think what I'm trying to say is that I've been wanting to become friends with the Woman in the Purple Skirt for a very long time....

Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched—by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to.

From a distance, the Woman in the Purple Skirt looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face, and her hair is dry and stiff. She is single, she lives in a small apartment, and she is short on money—just like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who lures her to a job as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she too is a housekeeper. Soon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss and all eyes are on her. But no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt.

Studiously deadpan and chillingly voyeuristic, and with the off-kilter appeal of the novels of Ottessa Moshfegh, The Woman in the Purple Skirt explores envy, loneliness, power dynamics, and the vulnerability of unmarried women in a taut, suspenseful narrative about the sometimes desperate desire to be seen.

©2021 Natsuko Imamura (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER: Elle · Vulture · Oprah Daily · Chicago Tribune · CrimeReads · International Business Times · Palm Beach Daily News · Refinery29

“I’m a sucker for tales about female friendships that slide into obsession. . . . Not just another cheap thriller with a ‘you can’t trust anyone’ conceit, Imamura’s latest is like Anita Brookner’s Look at Me, reimagined by a surrealist.”―Hillary Kelly, Vulture

“[A] hair-raising tale of psychological suspense.”―Oprah Daily

“As unusual as it is alluring.”―Elle

Wild

This story is wild. I can't get over the stalker vibes. So weird, but entertaining.

typical japanese fiction story

The story is pretty typical of Japanese short fiction - slice of life with a twist plus some deranged unreliable narrator. Reminds me of Yoko Ogawa's works actually.

The performance was great. Jennifer Ikeda has really captured the voices of different characters and reads with tone and inflection. The acting wasn't over the top and there wasn't a monotone second in the entire 3+ hours.
However, I do wish they had coached her on the Japanese pronunciations a bit. Obviously she can enunciate the syllables one by one but (r's, d's, etc were pronounced the Japanese way) but isn't really comfortable with speaking Japanese. It made the Japanese names in the book sound over-pronounced at times. Yet when she read the Japanese greetings in a certain section of the story, her intonation was completely off. I actually cringed a bit at that part, it was so bad. But it's not something a non-Japanese speaker would catch. The acting was really good though, and I'd love to hear more of her work.

interesting but not my style

defo interesting and a nice quick read but not amazing. a mystery that might be better for some

Didn't Get It

The first person narrator becomes captivated by the titular character. There isn't a logical reason for this -- other than appearing lonely, the woman seems ordinary. And yet the narrator observes her to the point where it's almost stalking. They wind up working the same job, but somehow never get a chance to meet. Other than the observing/stalking, everything that happens is quotidian. You expect a payoff, and there is one. But it is a letdown. As mentioned in the title, I didn't get it. Perhaps the lady in the purple skirt only exists in the mind of the narrator, and this is a meditation on identity or duality or some other psychological term that escapes me at the moment. I'm not interested in giving this another listen to find out. Have to say, the narrator is excellent; I'm interested in her other projects.

I’m very sad I wasted my time

The best thing about this book was the narrator. She did a great job. The story was very uninteresting. I was very disappointed.

It was ok

Honestly it was a narrator was great and all but the story just needed more. It had a decent plot but no conclusion