A vibrator is a device for stimulating pleasure and in Mari Akasaka’s novel, there are good vibrations and bad vibrations and vague ones … ones that are just the dull familiarity of white noise. Vibrator is all about seeking out escapist fantasy from the gritty reality of urban life. But to the young Japanese journalist here, escape is unlikely when the vibrations are even in her own head. All she wants to do is reach out and ‘touch someone’, so, acting on impulse, Rei Hayakawa jumps a ride with a long-distance lorry driver on a brief journey of abandon, sensuality, disillusionment and eventual (self) breakdown.  It’s a journey through contemporary Japan, from Tokyo radiating out to the coast, in search of connectivity.

Mari Akasaka, Vibrator. Faber & Faber, 2006. £3.12