Hollow Inside by Asako Otani: Book Review

 

Japanese Literature Challenge 19 

Hollow Inside by Asako Otani, publication Feb. 12, 2026; Pushkin Press, NetGalley copy

Genre: Humor and satire, Japanese literature, translated

This novel tells me that there are some social attitudes in Japan that reflect ambivalence towards women in their late 30s or 40s who are single, especially if they decide to become roommates, even if they are not partners.

Suganuma, 40, earns a living making hollow plastic dogs to order, for people who have lost their pets and want a replacement for the dogs.  She does however, have an outside life, though with a married man. Hirai, 38, on the other hand, has been unlucky in the dating scene, and longs for a child but is strangely happy to have the hollow plastic baby that roommate Suganuma makes for her on her 3D printing machine.  

The lives of the two women seem to be hollow, however, as they make do with replacements for a full life with a fake child and  making fake dogs for people who have lost real pets. Hirai, however, comes to accept that the future of a real child or family is not in the cards for her at this point.

I thought this was a sad but somewhat satiric novel on single women living as outliers in their society. An unusual but very interesting novel.

For The Japanese Literature Challenge 19