When the Museum Is Closed - by Emi Yagi (Paperback)

About the Book

"Rika Horauchi's new part-time job is to converse with a statue of Venus - in Latin - every Monday, when the museum is closed. Initially reluctant, Rika starts to enjoy her strange new job. Recommended by her old university professor for her exemplary language skills, Rika leads an otherwise unassuming life, working the rest of the week in a frozen-food warehouse. As Venus comes to life in the quiet of the museum, they talk about everything. Venus opens up new worlds for Rika, both intellectually and emotionally. They soon fall in love. But when the museum's curator, Hashibami, makes it clear he wants to keep Venus for himself, what will Rika do?"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A quirky, joyful, feel-good love story about a lonely museum worker who falls in love with a statue of Venus, from the author of international bestseller Diary of a Void

Rika Horauchi's new part-time job is to converse with a statue of Venus--in Latin--every Monday, when the museum is closed.

Initially reluctant, Rika starts to enjoy her strange new job. Recommended by her old university professor for her exemplary language skills, Rika leads an otherwise unassuming life, working the rest of the week in a frozen-food warehouse. As Venus comes to life in the quiet of the museum, they talk about everything. Venus opens up new worlds for Rika, both intellectually and emotionally. They soon fall in love. But when the museum's curator, Hashibami, makes it clear he wants to keep Venus for himself, what will Rika do?

When the Museum is Closed is by turns charming, funny and surprising, a surreal take on our most real emotions and concerns: love, loneliness, freedom, perceptions of beauty and how women are seen in society. This uncommonly original new novel confirms Emi Yagi as one of the most exciting Japanese writers published in English today.

Review Quotes

A Ballerina Book Club Pick
Vulture, A Must-Read of the Month
The Orange County Register, A Most Anticipated Book
Autostraddle, A Most Anticipated Queer Book of the Month
Literary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Slim and strangely exuberant . . . [Yagi has a] a knack for unexpected, absurd humor . . . Enjoyable." --Sarah Chihaya, The New Yorker

"[A] unique, witty novel about love and loneliness." --People

"There was so much to love about this piece. The sheer oddity of it keeps you turning page after page. The layers of comedy interwoven with the longing offset the heavier subject matter with a tone that at times feels more like a rom-com. It becomes an intricate, feel-good story of joy, resistance, and finding someone who understands you." --Finn Wirbel, International Examiner

"This novella is a tender, surrealistic, delightful masterpiece . . . Yagi's storytelling style is perfect for fans of Lydia Millet and Ted Chiang . . . One to reread on the rainy days, the overwhelming days, or the lonely days." --Sophie Richmond, Yakima Herald-Republic

"[T]hickly complex . . . Ultimately, When the Museum Is Closed is both a love story and a tale about stepping into the unknown. It asks whether you would willingly throw yourself into an abyss for the one you love. The story questions how we relate to one another in contemporary society, where we are taught to make self-serving, safe choices." --Grace En-yi Ting, The Japan Times

"Surreal and contemplative and utterly hopeful, When the Museum Is Closed challenges the notion of unbridgeable distances, both between people and within oneself . . . Throughout, Yagi engages with contemporary issues present in Japan and around the world . . . Rika's loneliness and crippling social anxiety, and is exemplary of how Yagi expertly deploys the limited speculative elements--here, a physical manifestation of her character's interiority--in her slim, surreal novel . . . These braids of narrative complement rather than compete with one another, and this arrangement smoothly renders Rika's overlapping inner conflicts and desires. The resultant narrative allows Rika to inhabit the pages of the novel, and When the Museum Is Closed becomes itself a sort of Venus statue: an inanimate object imbued with a particular life." --Alex Crayon, World Literature Today

"Yagi and her translator Yuki Tejima have a gift for finding beauty in the quotidian--a kind of ekphrasis of the everyday." --Rhoda Feng, ArtForum

"A fun and (metaphysical) sexy queer love story, Yagi's latest tackles love, loneliness, and the role of women's beauty in society." --Emily Firetog, Literary Hub

"When the Museum is Closed is a dreamlike take on desire, loneliness, and the transformative power of being perceived by others." --Linnea Gradin, Electric Literature

"As a slim novella, When the Museum Is Closed might seem initially spare but it's rife with insights on language, communication, love, identity, definitions of beauty, gender roles, and the possibility of true individual freedom." --Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"This whimsical story is a winner." --Publishers Weekly

"[Its] gentle surrealism nevertheless exposes truths about loneliness, beauty, and queer love . . . Fans of Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here will appreciate Yagi's blend of dark humor and empathy for her characters, while the unconventional love story may appeal to fans of Sky Daddy, by Kate Folk or Blob, by Maggie Su." --Booklist

"Yagi's characters and the world they inhabit are as inimitably charming as they are whimsical. Through them, the author explores weightier themes like loneliness, love, sexuality, and the meaning of art with flair, zest, and a refreshing touch of the surreal. A magical love story couched in absurdist fabulism." --Kirkus Reviews

"After loving Diary of a Void and now When the Museum Is Closed, I can confidently say that I love the way author Emi Yagi's brain works! Thank you Emi for writing these delightfully unhinged and charmingly unconventional stories." --Christine Bollow, Loyalty Bookstores (Washington, DC)

About the Author

EMI YAGI is an editor at a women's magazine in Japan. She was born in 1988 and lives in Tokyo. Her first novel and international cult hit, Diary of a Void, won the Osamu Dazai Prize, awarded annually to the best debut work of fiction.

YUKI TEJIMA is a translator from the Japanese whose projects include Mizuki Tsujimura's Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon and How to Hold Someone in Your Heart and Kumi Kimura's Someone to Watch Over You, among others. Raised in California, she now lives in Tokyo.