Hirai is in a rut. Nearing 40, disillusioned by dating and drifting through her office job, she’s starting to feel like she might just disappear. When she agrees to move in with her older colleague, Suganuma, people raise eyebrows, but the two women quickly settle into their own soothing domestic routines.

Yet escaping the pressures of romantic love isn’t easy. When a crisis jolts her back into the world of dating apps, Hirai meets more painfully adequate men and frets about freezing her eggs again. Surely there must be another way to feel less hollow? Witty and deadpan, Hollow Inside is a wonderfully skewed story of two single women trying to carve out their own space in a world of couples.

Translated by Ginny Takemori