Winner of the Shincho Prize for New Writers and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, Hiroko Oyamada is one of the most talented writers in Japanese literature today. Her imaginative writing combines the surreal and haunting style of Haruki Murakami with the satirical and antagonistic elegance of Franz Kafka.

The factory narrates the life of three workers (two men and one woman) in a large industrial complex that extends like a city. Each worker concentrates exclusively on the specific task assigned to him: reviewing documents, studying the moss that grows in the surroundings and shredding papers. Their lives are governed by work and slowly the days take on a strange logic. Little by little, the margins of reality begin to dissolve.

La Fábrica presents a vivid, highly original and not without dark humor portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of current work.

The book is completed with two other stories, The affliction of the discus fish, which tells us the story of a couple formed by a wealthy young man who is dedicated to raising fish and his wife, notably younger than him; and The Pariah Insect, in which insects take center stage in the life of a young employee whose mind is increasingly detached from reality. In these three stories, the author delves into the uncertainty and absurdity of our lives.