DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

The Factory

Hiroko Oyamada author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Granta Books

Published:10th Oct '24

Should be back in stock very soon

The Factory cover

From the author of Weasels in the Attic, here is a modern fable about the all-consuming world of work.

Beyond the town, there is the factory. Beyond the factory, there is nothing. Within the sprawling industrial complex, three employees are assigned to different departments. There, each must focus on a specific task: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. As they grow accustomed to the routine and co-workers, their lives become governed by their work. Days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while - it could be weeks or years - the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: what am I doing here? With hints of Kafka and Beckett and unexpected moments of creeping humour, The Factory is a vivid, and sometimes surreal, portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.

Strangely chilling * New York Times *
A stirring portrait of modern work-life culture * TIME Magazine *
[A] stellar, mind-bending debut * Publishers Weekly *

ISBN: 9781803510590

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

128 pages