Vanishing World

In Sayaka Murata's thought-provoking novel Vanishing World, set in an alternative Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and children are exclusively born through artificial insemination, the protagonist Amane grapples with her unconventional upbringing and desires. Haunted by the perception that her own birth was a product of “copulation,” she seeks to escape what she sees as societal indoctrination. Amane’s journey leads her and her husband Saku to Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where communal child-rearing challenges traditional norms. As they navigate a world where men can become pregnant and children are nameless, Amane must confront her own feelings and the potential of a life free from her perceived strangeness.