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Christian Dorsan, author, blogger and contributor to the 20 Minutes Books reading group, recommends "Journal d'un vide" by Emi Yagi, published on February 2, 2023 by Éditions Robert Laffont.

His favorite quote:

A question comes to mind as I write: how many of these imaginary children have existed so far? Where are they and what has become of them? I hope they are all doing well.

Why this book?

  • Because everything starts from a rebellion: no longer serving as a maid to do everything in the commercial department. When you are a woman and because you do not have the right to question the hierarchy, you have to invent a pretext, that of being pregnant. But now, when we are not expecting a child, how can we maintain this lie? A humorous starting point that gradually turns into a portrait of a delicate woman, this first novel deals with young women in Japan with humor and tenderness.
  • Because this story enlightens us on the social relations that exist between men and women, superiors and subordinates, but also on the friendly relations that one develops in one's company. Not necessarily intimate but often intrusive, professional relationships always oscillate between obligation, dedication and the defense of privacy. In a masculine universe, the employed woman has only a secondary role, the state of future mother will soften the macho rules of society.
  • Because it's a very beautiful novel about women. The confidences of these mothers in the making become as the book progresses, complaints and claims about their social role and within their couple. Bearer of life, the woman becomes sacred but once the miracle of birth is over, she and the child become a constraint for the man. Classified in the "utility" category, she isolates herself while maintaining a façade of the woman who best manages her career and her home, without recognition. Very beautiful portraits.

The essentials in 2 minutes

The plot. A young employee invents a pregnancy to escape the thankless tasks of her company. Trapped, she must live a life of pregnant woman for her colleagues and gets caught up in the game.

The characters. Shibata young employee, Higashinakano her considerate colleague, the group of pregnant women of the prenatal aerobics class, the parents, Sorato the imaginary unborn child.

Places. A big city in Japan.

The time. Current.

The author. Emi Yagi is the editor of a women's newspaper in Japan. His novel Diary of a Vide is his first novel and won the Osamu Dazai Award, the prize for the best first novel in Japan.

This book has been read as an ethnological story: organizing the arrival of a child in society is a journey strewn with imperatives that the heroine makes us discover with malice. It is also a beautiful book about the condition of women in Japan, often denigrated and changed when they become mothers.

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