Sunday book pick: In ‘Diary of a Void’, a fake pregnancy brings unexpected benefits at the workplace

“He’d filled the cups to the brim, and a client had ended up with hot coffee all over his shirt. Higashinakano had been forbidden to serve the coffee ever again. How lucky for him, I thought. No one had ever suggested I even take a break from it.”

Until now, pregnancy and motherhood have been thought of as death knells to a woman’s career, but if you are the only woman in your office and no man seems to have remotely any memory of their partner’s pregnancy, can it then become the magic wand to get what you want at the workplace?

Emi Yagi’s superbly funny novel about a 34-year-old woman faking a pregnancy was first published in Japanese in 2020 as Kūshin techō. It was published in English in 2022 as Diary of a Void in David Boyd and Lucy North’s translation.

The joys of phantom pregnancy

As the only woman in the office, Shibata is expected to clean up after her male colleagues, serve them coffee, and lay out the snacks in addition to her regular work. She is more visible as the janitor-matron of the team than as an equal to her male counterparts. Not once have they disposed of dirty coffee cups or stubbed a cigarette into a...

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