{"product_id":"the-forest-brims-over-isbn-9781640095373","title":"The Forest Brims Over","description":"\u003cb\u003eA woman turns herself into a forest after long being co-opted to serve as the subject of her husband’s novels—this surrealist fable challenges traditional gender attitudes and exploitation in the literary world\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNowatari Rui has long been the subject of her husband’s novels, depicted as a pure woman who takes great pleasure in sex. With her privacy and identity continually stripped away, she has come to be seen by society first and foremost as the inspiration for her husband’s art. When a decade’s worth of frustrations reaches its boiling point, Rui consumes a bowl of seeds, and buds and roots begin to sprout all over her body. Instead of taking her to a hospital, her husband keeps her in an aquaterrarium, set to compose a new novel based on this unsettling experience. But Rui breaks away from her husband by growing into a forest—and in time, she takes over the entire city.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs fantasy and reality bleed together, \u003ci\u003eThe Forest Brims Over\u003c\/i\u003e challenges unconscious gender biases and explores the boundaries between art and exploitation—muse abuse—in the literary world.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTokyo Weekender\u003c\/i\u003e, A Most Anticipated Title\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"'Reality affects what we can write, and then we read books about that reality, which changes our current reality in turn,' explains Ayase. The effectiveness of \u003ci\u003eThe Forest Brims Over \u003c\/i\u003elies precisely in Ayase's thorough awareness of this power of fiction: While we may never grow forests out of our bodies, Ayase has enabled us to experience in her words how doing so might just change society for the brighter.\" —Eric Margolis, \u003ci\u003eThe Japan Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Maru Ayase takes on gender roles and women’s agency in surreal and magical prose.\" —\u003ci\u003eMs.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Forest Brims Over\u003c\/i\u003e is worth reading as a fable gone feral, and a framing of ideas important to the way people feel and interact with each other.\" —\u003ci\u003eDaily Kos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beautifully unsettling and ultimately redemptive, this novel shines an unflinching light on the dysfunctional gender standards in publishing.\" —Mara Lynn Luther, \u003ci\u003eThe Ravalli Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A terrific, dreamlike page-turner.\" —J. R. Ramakrishnan, \u003ci\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A layered exploration of what it means to create, and the gendered labor that goes into sustaining artistic creation.\" —Jaeyeon Yoo, \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This surrealist story mixes botanist wonder, compelling characters, a bitter, ironic humor, and a wild, untamable feminine anger that together make the book a thought-provoking and quick read.\" —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A sprightly, compelling tale with magical realist flair in which a novelist’s muse takes charge of her own story.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ayase’s inventive English-language debut offers a fantastical account of the gendered power dynamics between a writer and his muse . . . This smart and dreamy story will leave English-language readers wanting more from Ayase.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Forest Brims Over\u003c\/i\u003e fascinates with its surrealistic and yet all-too-familiar tale of female agency subsumed under male ambition. Again and again the prose shifts registers and morphs, a feat that Ayase and Trowell pull off beautifully.\" ––YZ Chin, author of\u003ci\u003e Edge Case\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMARU AYASE\u003c\/b\u003e has published seventeen books, many of which have been finalists for major awards in Japan. \u003ci\u003eThe Forest Brims Over\u003c\/i\u003e is her first title to be translated into English.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHAYDN TROWELL\u003c\/b\u003e is an Australian literary translator of modern and contemporary Japanese fiction. His translations include \u003ci\u003eTouring the Land of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLove at Six Thousand Degrees\u003c\/i\u003e by Maki Kashimada, \u003ci\u003eThe Mud of a Century\u003c\/i\u003e by Yuka Ishii, and \u003ci\u003eThe Rainbow \u003c\/i\u003eby Yasunari Kawabata.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302901207269,"sku":"NP9781640095373","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781640095373.jpg?v=1767739394","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-forest-brims-over-isbn-9781640095373","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}