See site_link Natsuko Imamura is a Japanese writer She has been nominated three times for the Akutagawa Prize and won the prize in 2019 She has also won the Dazai Osamu Prize the Mishima Yukio Prize the Kawai Hayao Story Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize See site_link Natsuko Imamura is a Japanese writer She has been nominated three times for the Akutagawa Prize and won the prize in 2019 She has also won the Dazai Osamu Prize the Mishima Yukio Prize the Kawai Hayao Story Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize site_link QA 4 Q u0026A QA collects four stories by Natsuko Imamura the author of The Woman in the Purple Skirt Each of these stories is built on a cute and wholesome premise that develops in a dark and strange direction The title story is about a woman with social anxiety who creates a written script to help her navigate her job as a server at a small diner called Tonkotsu Her efforts are aided by the recently widowed owner of the diner and his young son who teaches the narrator to speak in Osaka dialect like his late mother The script gradually expands beyond professional dialogue however and the narrator ultimately becomes the ghostwriter for the diner owner s new wife This scenario seems like a perfect set up for a sweet and gentle romantic comedy but it gradually becomes disturbing as the narrator cheerfully crafts the diner owner s new wife into a living doll The three other stories in the collection are about middle school bullies a clueless wife who gets away with murder and a very sketchy coworker I wouldn t say that these stories have twist endings necessarily but the way their wholesome coziness slowly sinks into social horror is fascinating to watch 9784065283967