The Diving Pool

Three strange, tortuous stories from the shadow queen of contemporary Japanese fiction.

A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster-brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool – sparking an unspoken infatuation that draws out darker possibilities.

A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, but rather than a story of growth the diary reveals a more sinister tale of greed and repulsion.

Driven by nostalgia, a woman visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo. There she finds an isolated world shadowed by decay, haunted by absent students and the unsettling figure of the looming caretaker.

The Vintage Classics Weird Girls series: Dive into the depraved, delectable depths of weird fiction with nine books by nine pioneering female authors. Bold, disruptive, chilling and enchanting, these tales of the weird are strange enough to get lost in.

Yoko Ogawa 2008 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Listening Length ‏ : ‎ 3 hours and 59 minutes
Author ‏ : ‎ Yoko Ogawa, see all
Narrator ‏ : ‎ Susan Momoko Hingley
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 29 October 2026
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Digital
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0HK462TF5
Version ‏ : ‎ Unabridged
Program Type ‏ : ‎ Audiobook
Best Sellers Rank: #5,473 in Short Stories (Books) #15,194 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (522) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers praise the book’s writing style, with one noting how the author draws readers in with beautiful words. The content receives mixed reactions, with some finding it unnerving. The story quality is also mixed, with customers describing it as slightly surreal. The book’s length draws mixed opinions – while some say it stays with readers for a longer time, others find it too long.