Radical; untamed; always unexpected: a thrilling; can't-look-away collection of stories from the author of the internationally bestselling phenomenon Convenience Store Woman. From the author of international bestseller Convenience Store Woman comes a collection of short fiction: weird; out of this world and like nothing you've read before. An engaged couple falls out over the husband's dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the first time; this exclusive edition also includes the story that first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: 'A Clean Marriage'; which tells the story of a happily asexual couple who must submit to some radical medical procedures if they are to conceive a longed-for child. Mixing taboo-breaking body horror with feminist revenge fables; old ladies who love each other and young women finding empathy and transformation in unlikely places; Life Ceremony is a wild ride to the outer edges of one of the most original minds in contemporary fiction.