Snakes and Earrings

About “Snakes and Earrings”

Snakes and Earrings is a Japanese novel by Hitomi Kanehara that follows Lui, a young woman in Tokyo whose fascination with body modification and sadomasochistic sexual activity leads her to make increasingly dangerous personal choices. The story centers on a girl who experiments with her body, such as piercing her tongue, and is set against the backdrop of the adult entertainment scene. First published in 2003 in the literary magazine Shōsetsu Subaru as the winner of the 27th Subaru Literary Prize, the novel was republished in 2004 after winning the 130th Akutagawa Prize.