The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P (Hardcover)

This title presents a modern-day fairy tale about a young woman whose big toe turns into a penis. "The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P" is a highly acclaimed novel that won Japan's most prestigious literary prize for women writers. It is a kind of coming-of-age story - a modern-day fairy tale - about a young Japanese woman who wakes up one afternoon to discover that her big toe has turned into a penis. In coming to terms with her new sexual organ, the heroine is forced to reconsider her body, her sexuality, and her life. After fleeing from her homophobic fiance, she falls in love with a bisexual blind pianist who accepts her for who she is, and together they join a troupe of performers - all sexually deformed and emotionally twisted men and women. Thus begins her 'apprenticeship'. There are few novels that are equally praised by literary critics and scholars alike, and fewer yet that actually go on to become bestsellers, but the "The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P" is both. It is a highly imaginative, intelligent work, first-rate as literature, as entertainment, and as a love story. This novel is an exciting addition to the corpus of literary women's fiction. This is the first English language translation of a highly acclaimed novel, winner of the Women's Literature Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary prize for women writers.