Frankie's TOP 5 in 25 | Vanishing World - Sayaka Murata

Frankie says... 'Vanishing World' chronicles a singular woman, Amane, on her quest for sexual liberation and feminine selfhood in a world that osctracises sex, physicality and child birth. The way Murata frames her characters through their interiority is so painfully relatable, I was absolutely enthralled and mirrored in this novel. Amane's struggles and yearning for bodily 'normality' is played out through her real and fictional relationships; Murata is the continual spokesperson for all of us who feel/felt at odds with femininity, sex and intimacy, and who continue to feel in a bubble in a (albeit wonderful) world of body liberation and sensuality. A brilliant, tender book I will never forget.

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In our near-future world, children are solely conceived by artificial insemination. Even sex between married couples is viewed as taboo. Amane's family is irregular.

Her parents copulated to create her and hope that she too will find love and have a child with the person she marries. But Amane falls in line with society's way of thinking and wants a regular 'clean' marriage. Then she hears of a place that is the subject of a social experiment.

Everyone in Paradise-Eden will act as one big family. Could this be the perfect third way?