Out

Out is a crime novel by the Japanese writer Natsuo Kirino, published in 1997 and translated into English in 2004. It won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and it was the first of her novels to appear in English.

Four women work the night shift at a bento factory on the edge of Tokyo, each of them dealing with a life that has gone badly wrong outside the plant. Masako, the one the others look to, has nothing left in common with the husband she still lives with.

When one of the women kills her abusive husband, the others help her get rid of the body, and the novel follows what that decision sets loose. The disposal draws them into contact with a loan shark and a nightclub owner, so a crime that began in a kitchen spreads outward into the city.

Kirino writes the book as a crime story that is also about the position of women in a working-class suburb, and the English translation, by Stephen Snyder, was nominated for an Edgar Award. It is a standalone novel.