When the Museum is Closed
Japan

When the Museum is Closed

by Emi Yagi

Freedom & Resistance Fantasy Fiction Magical Realism 2023

Summary

Rika Horauchi has spent much of her life hiding from the world behind an invisible yellow raincoat, an imaginary barrier that protects her from unwanted attention and human interaction. Working in a frozen-food warehouse and spending her evenings watching livestreams, she leads a quiet, isolated existence. Everything changes when she accepts an unusual part-time job at a museum: conversing in Latin with a statue of Venus on Mondays, when the museum is closed. Initially intimidated by the goddess’s beauty, Rika gradually discovers a surprising connection with her. As their conversations deepen, Venus becomes a companion who challenges Rika’s assumptions about beauty, desire, and the way women are perceived by others. Their relationship develops into an unconventional love story that opens up new possibilities for Rika, encouraging her to reconsider her isolation and imagine a different kind of freedom. Blending surrealism, dark humour, and feminist commentary, Emi Yagi’s novel explores loneliness, queer desire, and the transformative power of being understood. Beneath its whimsical premise lies a thoughtful examination of how society shapes women’s identities and how intimacy can help us break free from expectations.

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Country
Japan
Asia
About the author
Emi Yagi
Emi Yagi

Emi Yagi (born 1988) is a Japanese novelist and magazine editor who lives in Tokyo. She has gained international recognition for her unconventional fiction, which combines absurdist humour, surrealism, and social criticism to explore women’s experiences in contemporary Japanese society. Yagi made her literary debut with Diary of a Void (2020), a novel about a woman who pretends to be pregnant to escape the expectations and discrimination she faces in the workplace. The book received the Osamu Dazai Prize, an award recognising promising new fiction, and became an international bestseller after its English translation was published in 2022. Her second novel, When the Museum Is Closed, originally published in Japanese in 2023, further develops her interest in female autonomy, unconventional relationships, and resistance to social norms. Through imaginative premises and understated humour, Yagi questions expectations surrounding women’s bodies, identities, and relationships. Her work has attracted international attention for its fresh perspective on gender and the pressures of everyday life.

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Details
Published
2023
Author
Emi Yagi