TWO YEARS ago Sayaka Murata won international acclaim after the English-language publication of "Convenience Store Woman", in which a shopworker struggles to escape society's pressures. For 18 years before Ms Murata wrote that book, she had herself worked part-time in a convenience store in T6kyo. "Earthlings", her second novel to be translated into English by Gin-ny Tapley Takemori, is another offbeat tale about outsiders in Japan. This time, however, her characters are not only low-status; they are completely ostracised.
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