num_pages: 366
description: In a few short years, Banana Yoshimoto has established herself as one of the best and most influential writers of modern Japanese fiction. Amrita, her latest novel, may be her most richly hued and sophisticated work yet.Amrita opens with the death of a celebrated young actress in mysterious and shocking circumstances. She leaves behind an unconventional extended family that includes an older sister, a woman in her twenties through whose eyes the story unfolds; a kid brother who possesses mystical powers; and a fiance who is writing a novel with uncanny parallels to the story he is living. Caught between history and hope, these three survivors embark on a journey that take them through grief and suffering, memories lost and regained, forbidden romance, redemption, and recovery in a confrontation with the spirits of the dead on a remote island in the pacific, once the site of a fatal clash between Japanese and American forces.
language: English
title: Amrita
titlecomplete: Amrita
genres: Japan, 20th Century, Novels, Asian Literature, Literature, Magical Realism, Asia, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 6640
places: Japan
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Grove Press