Terminal Boredom – Izumi Suzuki
Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki / ISBN 9781788739887 / 218-page paperback from Verso, published 2022
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The first English language publication of the work of Izumi Suzuki, a legend of Japanese science fiction and a countercultural icon
At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki’s singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.
Translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan.
Izumi Suzuki (1949-1986) was a writer, actress, model and a countercultural icon in Japan. In the last decade of her life she produced an influential body of radical, punky and groundbreaking fiction.
