Kitchen

With the publication of Kitchen, the literary world realized that Banana Yoshimoto was a young writer of enduring talent whose work earned a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother Eriko (who is really his cross-dressing father). As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.

In a whimsical style that recalls the early Marguerite Duras, Kitchen and its companion story, Moonlight Shadow, are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a very special writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

Endorsements

The acclaimed debut of Japan's "master storyteller" — Chicago Tribune.

"Lucid, earnest and disarming ... [It] seizes hold of the reader's sympathy and refuses to let go." — Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times