Banana Yoshimoto

At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many outsiders: a city of bewildering scale, awe-inspiring modernity, peculiar rules, unknowable secrets and, to some extent, danger. Characters observe their fellow citizens from afar, hesitant to stray from their daily routines to engage with them. But Tokyo being the city it is, random encounters inevitably take place - a naive book collector, mistaken for a French speaker, is drawn into a world he never knew existed; a woman seeking psychiatric help finds herself in a taxi with an older man wanting to share his own peculiar revelations; a depressed divorcee accepts an unexpected lunch invitation to try Thai food for the very first time... The result in each story is a small but crucial change in perspective, a sampling of the unexpected yet simple pleasure of other people's company. As one character puts it, 'The world is full of delicious things, you know.'

Handlingen följer Maria Shirakawa, en kvinna som åker till Tokyo för att studera vid universitetet. Maria lämnar Yamamoto-inn där hennes bästa vän Tsugumi bor. Tsugumi verkar vara ett otrevligt ungt flicka mot främlingar, men bara Maria känner till de hemligheter hon döljer.

Winner of the Tanizaki Prize in 2022, her latest short story collection from 2021, Mittens and Pity is what Yoshimoto calls the greatest achievement of her writing life since Dead-End Memories Set between Kanazawa, Helsinki, Taipei, Rome, Hong Kong, and Hachijo-jima, the six stories collected here depict people who are struggling with recent loss and coming to terms with the truth of living with the memory. In the title story, a couple takes a honeymoon to Helsinki after both mothers, who had been against their marriage, passed away. In "Sinsin and the Mouse," a daughter who has dedicated her young adult life to caring for her sick mother, travels to Taipei after her mother's death, slowly adjusting to her new freedom and loneliness. In "Caronte," seeking closure from the accidental death of her best friend, a woman follows the last footstep of her best friend in Rome and encounters the person who has been holding her friend's final message. Instead of fighting with their pain, women in Mittens and Pity observe their emotions and find a tiny sparkle in the moment. Yoshimoto has been writing about loss since her debut and this collection showcases what Yoshimoto has been trying to achieve in the last thirty years. Mittens and Pity is wise, compassionate, and hopeful. Yes, as always, food heals the human soul in this collection. Yes, this is the best Banana Yoshimoto literature.

'Poignant . . . deeply nostalgic.' GLAMOUR'Strange, melancholy and beautiful.' BRANDON TAYLOR'The supreme poet of solitude.' SPECTATORThere was no past, no future, no words, nothing - just the light and the yellow and the scent of dry leaves in the sun. Japan's internationally celebrated storyteller returns with five stories of healing and hope. Effortlessly beautiful, nostalgic and melancholy, the stories in Dead-End Memories explore the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, find solace in the blissful moments in everyday life. The daughter of a restaurant owner experiences a budding romance, accompanied by the ghosts of an elderly couple. After a scandalous near-death experience, an editor gains a new lease of life. A woman seeks refuge in the apartment above her uncle's bar after being betrayed by her fiancé. As Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us, one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to see it.

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF KITCHEN'Polished, concise, emotionally rewarding.' DAILY MAIL'Exquisite.' MARIE CLAIRE'A timely invitation to explore her unusual, alluring world.' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Casts a delicate spell.' SPECTATOR'Yoshimoto bucks beautifully against convention.' THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKS REVIEW I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide . . . It was the beginning of summer, and I was nineteen years old. Yayoi lives with her perfect, loving family - something 'like you'd see in a Spielberg movie'. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood, she is increasingly haunted by the sense that she's forgotten something important about her past.

From the beloved, bestselling author of Kitchen - six new ethereal, heartwarming stories of grief, time and memory.

The internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and heartfelt story of a young woman haunted by her childhood and the inescapable bitterness that inevitably comes from knowing the truth "There's a matter-of-factness to Yoshimoto's prose that would feel stultifying if it weren't so mischievous... Yoshimoto bucks beautifully against convention" --New York Times Book Review Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino. No one understands her aunt's unusual lifestyle. For as long as Yayoi can remember, Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home, quietly, almost as though asleep. When she is not working, Yukino spends all day in her pajamas, clipping her nails and trimming her split ends. She eats only when she feels like it, and she often falls asleep lying on her side in the hallway. She sometimes wakes Yayoi at 2:00 a.m to be her drinking companion, sometimes serves flan in a huge mixing bowl for dinner, and watches Friday the 13th over and over to comfort herself. A child study desk, old stuffed animals--things Yukino wants to forget--are piled up in her backyard like a graveyard of her memories. An instant bestseller in Japan when first published in 1988, The Premonition is finally available in English, translated by the celebrated Asa Yoneda.

"De ställen jag tycker bäst om i hela världen är kök. Det spelar ingen roll var det är eller hur det är, bara det är ett kök, bara det är ett ställe där man lagar mat, så trivs jag." Den föräldralösa Mikage står alldeles ensam i världen efter att hennes mormor dött. Inför begravningen får hon hjälp av den jämnårige Yuichi, som arbetar i mormoderns favoritblomsterbutik. Helt oväntat föreslår han att Mikage ska bo med honom och hans mamma Eriko, en transkvinna som driver nattklubb i Tokyo. Tveksam tackar hon ja och flyttar in på en soffa i deras kök rummet hon älskar mest i alla hem. Och samtidigt som den nya familjen tar form byggs en vacker och stämningsfull berättelse upp, ständigt med ett kök i närheten. Tills nya tragedier en dag står för dörren. Den japanska kultklassikern Kitchen från 1988 finner ständigt nya läsare världen över. Här presenteras den tillsammans med systernovellen Moonlight Shadow -- två eleganta berättelser om kärlek och förlust vars skenbara enkelhet är ett konstgrepp av en mycket speciell författare. Banana Yoshimoto (född 1964 i Tokyo) heter egentligen Mahoko Yoshimoto, men tog pseudonymen Banana för att hon älskar bananblommor. Kitchen -- som har den engelska titeln även i det japanska originalet -- är hennes debut och innebar ett genombrott utan dess like när den kom ut. Den tilldelades två av Japans mest prestigefyllda litteraturpriser och sålde över en miljon exemplar bara under första året. Idag har den översatts till fler än 25 språk och även filmatiserats, och Banana Yoshimoto är alltjämt en av landets mest berömda författare. Vibeke Emond är en av Sveriges mest ansedda översättare från japanska. Hon översatte Kitchen redan 1994 men har inför nyutgivningen reviderat sin egen översättning.

'Poignant . . . deeply nostalgic.' GLAMOUR'Strange, melancholy and beautiful.' BRANDON TAYLOR'The supreme poet of solitude.' SPECTATORThere was no past, no future, no words, nothing - just the light and the yellow and the scent of dry leaves in the sun. Japan's internationally celebrated storyteller returns with five stories of healing and hope. Effortlessly beautiful, nostalgic and melancholy, the stories in Dead-End Memories explore the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, find solace in the blissful moments in everyday life. The daughter of a restaurant owner experiences a budding romance, accompanied by the ghosts of an elderly couple. After a scandalous near-death experience, an editor gains a new lease of life. A woman seeks refuge in the apartment above her uncle's bar after being betrayed by her fiancé. As Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us, one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to see it.

The deeply moving new novel from the beloved, internationally bestselling author of Kitchen.

Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize The internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and heartfelt story of a young woman haunted by her childhood and the inescapable bitterness that inevitably comes from knowing the truth Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino. No one understands her aunt's unusual lifestyle. For as long as Yayoi can remember, Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home, quietly, almost as though asleep. When she is not working, Yukino spends all day in her pajamas, clipping her nails and trimming her split ends. She eats only when she feels like it, and she often falls asleep lying on her side in the hallway. She sometimes wakes Yayoi at 2:00 a.m to be her drinking companion, sometimes serves flan in a huge mixing bowl for dinner, and watches Friday the 13th over and over to comfort herself. A child study desk, old stuffed animals--things Yukino wants to forget--are piled up in her backyard like a graveyard of her memories. An instant bestseller in Japan when first published in 1988, The Premonition is finally available in English, translated by the celebrated Asa Yoneda.

Japan's internationally celebrated master storyteller returns with five stories of women on their way to healing that vividly portrays the blissful moments and everyday sorrows that surround us in everyday life First published in Japan in 2003 and never before published in the United States, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly discover their ways back to recovery. Among the women we meet in Dead-End Memories is one betrayed by her fianc who finds a perfect refuge in an apartment above her uncle's bar while seeking the real meaning of happiness. In "House of Ghosts," the daughter of a yoshoku restaurant owner encounters the ghosts of a sweet elderly couple who haven't yet realized that they've been dead for years. In "Tomo-chan's Happiness," an office worker who is a victim of sexual assault finally catches sight of the hope of romance. Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us that one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and that happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to pause and reflect. Discover this collection of what Yoshimoto herself calls the "most precious work of my writing career."

Banana Yoshimoto's warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and bestseller status, as well as a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. In Lizard, Yoshimoto deftly fuses traditional and pop culture to create contemporary portraits of love and life. These six tales explore themes of time, healing, and fate--and the journeys of self-discovery through which young urbanites come to terms with them. In "Newlywed," an unhappily married young man deliberately misses his stop on the train, only to be questioned by a shape-shifting homeless man about the trials of his marriage. In "Blood and Water," a woman recalls how she left the village she grew up in--which was run by a New Age cult--in order to lead a fulfilling life, even against her parents' wishes. And in the title story, "Lizard," a woman who has never before felt truly secure in her life admits a deep secret to her lover--that she has the ability to heal others with her mind. In different ways, these six stories explore what it takes to navigate the perils of the modern world as well as what it takes to reinvent one's self. Permeated by the author's own effervescent spin on magic realism, Lizard cements a special place for Yoshimoto in 20th-century Japanese fiction.

"Yoshimoto hits some of the same notes that a previous generation's literary masters (say, Kawabata or Tanizaki) might sound, and yet the effect seems artless, spontaneous and wonderfully fresh." --Los Angeles Times Book Review Banana Yoshimoto's warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status, as well as a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. In N. P., a celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English, entitled N. P. But the book may never be published in his native Japan: each translator who takes up the ninety-eighth story chooses death too--including Kazami's boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji's death, Kazami discovers the truth behind the ninety-eighth story--and comes to believe that "everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy." Banana Yoshimoto's language sweeps the reader immediately into the streets of Tokyo, with her uncanny ability to merge the echoes of Japanese traditional literature with a contemporary plot. N. P. is essential reading, a stunningly simple tale of youthful desires and obsessions.