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When the Museum is Closed

A joyful queer love story from the author of Japanese cult hit Diary of a Void

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When the Museum is Closed

Written by: Emi Yagi, Yuki Tejima - translator
Narrated by: Kae Alexander
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There she stood. A goddess. I was in love with the marble goddess.

When Rika Horauchi accepts an unusual new part-time job, she never expects to fall in love.

Rika has been tasked with talking to Venus, to keep her company when the museum is closed on Mondays. As Venus comes to life in the quiet of their surroundings, she opens up new worlds for Rika, and they speak about everything. But when the museum’s curator, Hashibami, makes it clear he wants to keep Venus for himself, what will Rika do?

When the Museum is Closed is by turns charming, funny and surprising, a love story about our perceptions of beauty, overcoming loneliness and breaking free.

Translated by Yuki Tejima

'Slim and strangely exuberant...[an] unexpected, absurd humour' New Yorker

© Emi Yagi 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Romance World Literature
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Critic Reviews

Slim and strangely exuberant...[an] unexpected, absurd humor
A fun and (metaphysical) sexy queer love story, Yagi’s latest tackles love, loneliness, and the role of women’s beauty in society
A dreamlike take on desire, loneliness, and the transformative power of being perceived by others
[Its] gentle surrealism nevertheless exposes truths about loneliness, beauty, and queer love . . . Fans of Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here will appreciate Yagi’s blend of dark humor and empathy for her characters, while the unconventional love story may appeal to fans of Sky Daddy by Kate Folk or Blob by Maggie Su
I was captivated by Rika's strange, frozen world, filled with movement and passion - a perfectly contained and luminous story that reveals a whole world of desire and possibility, right at the heart of loneliness (Rosie Price, author of THE ORANGE ROOM)
Another surreal delight
I quickly became addicted and found myself thinking about it long after I had finished (***** READER REVIEW)
Filled with comedy, yet it constantly makes the reader question societal norms (***** READER REVIEW)
Unlike anything I've ever read! (**** READER REVIEW)
Effortlessly blends the everyday with the fantastical. A celebration of non-conformity and freedom from society’s constraints… I found it completely gripping (**** READER REVIEW)
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