The Woman in the Purple Skirt

The self-effacing narrator of this Japan-set thriller (winner of Japan’s Akutagawa Prize in 2019) refers to herself as the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. She is obsessed with a local woman whom she calls the Woman in the Purple Skirt. In the narrator’s mind, the object of her obsession has the unique ability to walk through crowds without bumping into anyone but is noticed by everyone. The virtually invisible narrator stalks her prey, marking in a notebook her comings and goings, her intermittent employment, her favorite bakery product. The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan eventually lures the Woman in the Purple Skirt, by posting help-wanted ads on Purple Skirt’s “Exclusively Reserved Seat” in the local park. The ads steer the Woman in the Purple Skirt to a job cleaning hotel rooms, at the same hotel as the narrator who hopes to befriend her. However, the narrator cannot bring herself to interact with the object of her desire. When the Woman in the Purple Skirt becomes popular at work, the narrator is unnerved. However, when the Woman in the Purple Skirt comes crashing down, the narrator hopes that her chance has finally arrived.