Banana Yoshimoto

There 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 new novel from the bestselling author of the beloved classic, Kitchen. 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. Deciding to take a break, she goes to stay with her mysterious but beloved aunt Yukino, whose strange behaviour includes waking Yayoi at two in the morning to be her drinking companion, watching Friday the 13th repeatedly and throwing away all the things she wants to forget. Living a life without order, Yukino seems to be protecting herself, but beneath this facade Yayoi starts to recover lost memories, and everything she knows about her past threatens to change forever.

Banana Yoshimoto Konyhája elbűvölően eredeti és mélyen megható művészkönyv Japánból. A Kitchen "nagyvárosi" regény. Egy egész generáció életmódját és érzékenységét, fiatalok névtelen harcát mutatja be. Két történetet helyez egymás mellé, melyek anyákról, a konyháról, szerelemről, tragédiákról szólnak. Mindez szabad szellemű, fiatalnők agyában születik meg a mai Japánban. Bolondos stílusa a korai Margueritte Duras-ra emlékeztet. A Konyha a a Telihold két elegáns történet, melyek látszólagos egyszerűsége a mesteri történetleírás ékes példája. A különleges tehetségű író sorai az agyunkban visszhangoznak és megérintik lelkünket is. Megjelenését követően a könyv óriási sikert aratott Japánban. A szerzőnőt a XX. századi japán irodalom legkiválóbbjai között tartják számon, két tekintélyes irodalmi díjat nyert. A Kitchen című novelláját megfilmesítették.

Yoshimoto has a magical ability to animate the lives of her young characters, and here she spins the stories of three women, all bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by another woman whom she was once pitted against in a love triangle. Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque surrealism, Asleep is an enchanting new book from one of the best writers in contemporary international fiction.

Referring to a book of 97 stories called NP written by a depressed Japanese writer, Banana Yoshimoto tells the story of a narrator's involvement with his estranged wife and two children and of the effect the stories have had on everyone who has tried to translate them.

An actress dies in shocking circumstances. She leaves behind an unconventional extended family of three who embark on a journey through grief and suffering, memories lost and gained, forbidden romance, redemption and recovery, and a confrontation with spirits on a remote Pacific island.