★ Rights sold: Traditional Chinese and Korean!
★ When everyone has lost their hair, have we truly achieved equality? A new divide is quietly taking root.
★ The latest novella by Akutagawa Prize–winning author Takase Hayako, a gem of a work that explores the theme of body image insecurities with exquisite craftsmanship.
★ Using a fantastical premise to delve into issues of estrangement and self-acceptance, it wields humor and sharp wit to strip away the façade of “beauty standards.”

After so much hardship, everyone had finally gone bald—
A sudden, mysterious infectious disease had, almost without anyone noticing, transformed the world into an egalitarian one where, except for elementary and middle school students, everyone had lost their hair.

Machika, who had long been troubled by her thinning hair, at first felt a great sense of relief. But one day, she was confronted with an unexpected new problem—one that seemed poised to affect her friendship with her longtime best friend, Terra…

Meanwhile, an equally unforeseen trouble befell high school student Takuma: as a child, he had suffered the trauma of having his hair cut off by someone. The root of it all lay in a prophecy he and his girlfriend, Kisaki, received during a visit to a fortune-teller…

Just when they thought their values had been completely reshaped, another kind of rift was already beginning to take root, quietly and imperceptibly.

Hayako Takase
Born in Ehime Prefecture in 1988, she graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Ritsumeikan University and currently resides in Tokyo. In 2019, her novel “Living as a Dog” won the 43rd Subaru Literary Award. In 2021, “Breathing in a Puddle” was shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize. In 2022, “May I Taste Delicious Food” was awarded the 167th Akutagawa Prize. In 2024, “The Yawn of a Good Child” received the Newcomer Award at the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Arts Encouragement Prizes. Her other works include “It’s All Unbearable Noise,” “Budding,” and “A Brand-New Romance.”