Weasels in the Attic – Oyamada Hiroko (2023)

A UK debut from a fresh, prize-winning talent, this quietly surreal novel is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Mieko Kawakami. Two friends meet across three dinners. In the back room of a pet shop, they snack on dried shrimps and discuss fish-breeding. In a remote new home in the mountains, they look for a solution to a weasel infestation. During a dinner party in a blizzard, a mounting claustrophobia makes way for uneasy dreams. Their conversations often take them in surprising directions, but when one of the men becomes a father, more and more is left unsaid. With emotional acuity and a wry humour, Weasels in the Attic is an uncanny and striking reflection on fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan.