Book Review: ‘Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks’

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Updated 03 July 2026 22:15

Sumaiyya Naseem

July 03, 2026 21:59

“Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks” by Natsuko Imamura, published by Faber & Faber in 2024, is a collection of three strange stories with a beating heart that is rooted in the human experience.

Translated from the Japanese by Lucy North, the collection dissolves the boundary between reality and fantasy, using the bizarre as a way of illuminating the inner lives of its female protagonists. When I picked it up one uneventful afternoon I wasn’t fully prepared for the wild ride it turned out to be.

Imamura begins with seemingly impossible ideas — a girl devastated by the fact that no one will eat the food she prepares, another who longs to be hit just once, and a young woman who gradually assumes the role of a family’s pet — and follows each premise with such emotional conviction that the absurd begins to feel plausible.

Across the three thought-provoking stories, the author explores womanhood, transformation, violence, alienation, and the universal desire to be seen and understood.

Childhood innocence and youthful naivety are rendered as exposed wounds, leaving her characters especially vulnerable to the cruelties of the world around them.

The final story, “A Night to Remember,” centered on a girl named Happy, is the collection’s most elusive. Its shifting logic and dreamlike structure can occasionally make it difficult to follow, asking readers to surrender conventional expectations of narrative in favor of atmosphere and emotion. Those willing to suspend disbelief are more likely to enjoy the strange escape the collection offers.

The titular story was easily my favorite. Asa’s growing confusion as she realizes that people refuse to eat anything she offers becomes an unexpectedly poignant metaphor for rejection and the longing to connect with others.

As with the others in this short book, the story begins with a scene that might feel relatable or realistic — Asa offers a biscuit to her classmate — but by the time we reach the end, it warps into a whole other reality with an ending that feels solemn and monumental at the same time.

By filtering everyday anxieties through the surreal, Imamura demonstrates why contemporary Japanese fiction continues to resonate with readers.

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