Out by Natsuo Kirino

The English translation of a bestseller Japanese novel by a bestselling female novelist Natsuo Kirino. Out.

Out is a weird novel. It is about a group of Japanese women who work the graveyard shift at a bento factory and end up chopping up people. This is not connected to the food industry in any way, although you would almost expect them to recycle human parts as food. But instead, they chop up the bodies, bag them in plastic bags and then have this guy who use to be a loan shark ship them to a different city.



The first murder happens with one of the women choking her husband, kind of by accident, not really meaning to do. She asks her friend for help and they end up chopping up the body in the bathroom.

All in all, the story is pretty twisted. All those difficulties with bagging human bodies is kind of obscene and disturbing at the same time. I don't want to spoil the end but the story escalates further towards the end of the novel.

But I found the description of these women really vivid. Their work at the bento factory, their dull and meaningless shift that keeps them sleepy and knocked out for the rest of the day, is very nicely done. You kind of feel glad that you are not part of the book.