In an unnamed Japanese city, three seemingly normal and unrelated characters find work at a sprawling industrial factory. They each focus intently on their specific jobs: one studies moss, one shreds paper, and the other proofreads incomprehensible documents. Life in the factory has its own logic and momentum, and, eventually, the factory slowly expands and begins to take over everything, enveloping these poor workers. Told in three alternating first-person narratives, this novel casts a vivid - if sometimes surreal - portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of modern life.
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