A chilling tale of envy and vulnerability. Clear space on your reading list now. ― Vogue

A voyeuristic thriller . . . This study in fascination, translated from Japanese, is as unusual as it is alluring. ― Elle

Delightfully disturbing . . . Imamura does weird singularly well, and keeps the suspense taut throughout the novel, always teasing an answer to the questions: Why this woman? What makes her so special? What makes any of us worth watching at all? ― Refinery 29

Disquieting and wryly funny, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession. -- Paula Hawkins

Very powerful . . . Meticulous and extremely precise . . . Reading this book made me feel like I was in an unstable and strange world. -- Sayaka Murata

A breathless novel that depicts with sly humor the strange relationship between two women in contemporary Japan. You too will be obsessed with the Woman in the Purple Skirt and held in suspense until the last page. -- Leila Slimani

Imamura definitely has a rare talent for depicting people who are a little out of the ordinary. . . . By the time I got to the end, a powerful sense of the narrator's loneliness forcing its way through the madness gripped my heart. -- Yoko Ogawa

Imamura offers her reader crisp, refreshing prose. The Woman in the Purple Skirt will keep you firmly in its grips with its persistent, disquieting, matter-of-fact style. -- Oyinkan Braithwaite

Reading this novel, you can really hear Natsuko Imamura's unique voice, which comes across quite unsparingly and beautifully. -- Hiromi Kawakami

A superb story . . . I was mesmerized by this narrator. Unlikable men who hold our sympathy are frequently found in fiction, but I don't think I've ever encountered a woman as unappealing as this one who still managed to keep me completely beguiled. -- Suichi Yoshida

Part psychological thriller, part study of endemic loneliness . . . a clever, wry and disturbing piece of fiction [and] a sharp examination of personality and persona and the small terrors of everyday life. -- Catherine Taylor ― Irish Times

Horrifying, humorous, whimsical, and disturbing . . . It will remain with you. ― Tokyo Shimbun

A novel unlike anything that's come before it . . . This strange and unsettling story about control and paranoia will likely take 2021 by storm. ― Metropolis

Delightfully disturbing . . . Imamura does weird singularly well, and keeps the suspense taut throughout. ― Yahoo!Life

A coolly febrile psychological caper that ultimately portrays the very business of third-person narration - usually seen as an
act of imaginative sympathy - as a stalking of sorts.

― Financial Times

Clever, bewildering and darkly comic, The Woman in the Purple Skirt is the story of two women whose lives are set to become terribly entwined.