num_pages: 160
description: Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book 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 of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.
language: English
title: Kitchen
titlecomplete: Kitchen
characters: Mikage Sakurai, Urara (Kitchen), Eriko Tanabe, Yūichi Tanabe, Satsuki (Kitchen), Hiiragi
genres: Asia, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, Asian Literature, Japan, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 88159
places: Japan, Tokyo
awards: awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Nihon University Department of Arts Prize, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Kaien magazine New Writer Prize, awardedAt: 568022400000
name: Mishima Yukio Prize 三島由紀夫賞
publisher: Grove Press