The Forest Brims Over

Ayase’s inventive English-language debut offers a fantastical account of the gendered power dynamics between a writer and his muse. Author Nowatari Tetsuya based his breakout novel on his wife, Nowatari Rui, who is now heartsick and bitter over Tetsuya’s infidelity with one of his students. She responds by eating seeds meant for their garden and begins to sprout leaves and roots all over her body. Tetsuya draws on his wife’s transformation as inspiration for his next book, which turns out to be even more successful than the last. In addition to Rui and Tetsuya, the novel’s rotating points of view include that of Tetsuya’s first editor, whose long hours and frequent visits to Tokyo’s red-light district cause his wife to leave him; Tetsuya’s new editor, an up-and-coming woman who is discounted by her male peers; and his mistress, whom he uses for inspiration before discarding her. Though some of the characters’ conversations feel a bit didactic, Tetsuya’s use of varied perspectives anchors and deepens the book’s central theme of power imbalances in relationships. This smart and dreamy story will leave English-language readers wanting more from Ayase. Agent: Nagisa Nakasone, Kawade Shobo Shinsha. (July)