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 bin. Shibata is often held back at work for longer hours to make up for the time she wastes every day doing housekeeping duties. When a male colleague smokes near her, she blurts out that she’s pregnant and if he could please smoke somewhere else. It is a non-smoking floor anyway, but that has never stopped the men.

However, unlike other white lies, a woman cannot get away with lying about being pregnant. Shibata warms up to the idea, immediately realising she could finally have her way without putting in too much effort. Her single status confounds her colleagues but they know better than to pry unnecessarily. Shibata dresses the part and gets hold of pregnancy handbooks and maternity souvenirs. She pretends so well that she even manages to get a seat on the subway during the busiest hours.

It is the first time Shibata has been allowed to leave work at the mandated 5 o’clock – she relishes the crowded trains and platforms, the fresh produce at the supermarket, the longer evenings. She would be home late every evening and had come to believe that the trains were usually empty and the produce at the supermarket, stale and lifeless. The pregnancy imbues her with a new life. She decides to eat well, exercise, and relax better. Simple pleasures such as taking a bath and watching movies become routine.

The pregnancy also becomes her pass to finding a readymade community. When she joins a maternity aerobics class, Shibata meets women in various stages of pregnancy who immediately take her in and proffer advice and caution. These women, who are also married, confess their marital troubles, the most common complaint being that of uncaring, neglectful husbands. One of Shibata’s close friends, who is also married (but not pregnant), lays bare her marital woes (it eventually ends in divorce), unaware that Shibata is faking a pregnancy.

These interactions make Shibata rethink her “loneliness” – the general awfulness of men and the unequal burdens of marriage make her wonder if she’s better off alone. Like many Japanese women authors, Emi Yagi also does not take a deferential stand towards marriage. These small moments of loneliness, the novel seems to suggest, are healthier than loveless marriages. Instead, what must take precedence is creating life because one wants to, and on their own terms – marriage might be the easiest route to it, but certainly not the only and right one.

Life outside the box

The phantom pregnancy quite literally grows on Shibata and before long, she starts putting on weight, having morning sickness, and an ultrasound scan also reveals an image of a foetus! Shibata decides her baby is a boy, and, unlike the men she knows and is surrounded by, he will grow up to be considerate of women. This is more than hopeful optimism. Shibata genuinely wants to believe that a child can overcome social prejudices if they are instilled with the right values. When a child is free from the burden of identity, who then may they become?

The Diary of a Void is also a terrific critique of the brutal ethics of the Japanese workplace. Besides the unfair menial work that is expected of Shibata, we also see instances of overwork, fatigue, and workplace bullying. Even an unseasonal snowstorm cannot stop her colleague from working late into the evening on an “urgent” report, never mind that the senior who is to read it has already fled for home.

Urban loneliness, coupled with a hostile workplace environment, seems to have created a serious dilemma, especially among Japanese women. Shibata’s own life and her encounters with the expecting mothers reveal the double bind that women find themselves in – give up financial independence for family, or forego having a family for a career. There is, of course, no easy choice to be made here. But if a woman has the opportunity to make her own life and live on her own terms, the novel reiterates, then she must not let it go at any cost.

Diary of a Void, Emi Yagi, translated from the Japanese by David Boyd and Lucy North, Penguin Random House.