In these three novellas, Yoshimoto spins the stories of three young women bewitched into a spiritual sleep. Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque surrealism, "Asleep"--now in paperback--is an enchanting book from one of the best writers in contemporary international fiction.

When charismatic and spoiled Tsugumi invites her cousin Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. A 2002 Kiriyama Prize Book.

With the publication of Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, the literary world realized that Yoshimoto was a young writer of enduring talent whose work has quickly 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...

In cherished novels such as "Kitchen" and "Goodbye Tsugumi," Banana Yoshimoto s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In "Hardboiled," the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover s death. As she nears her hotelstopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shopa sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these...

Wie der lngst zum Kultbuch gewordene Roman Kitchen ist Amrita die Geschichte einer ungewhnlichen Wahl-Familie, die von der Trauer um einen geliebten Menschen zusammengehalten wird. Amrita ist eine Odyssee durch die heftigsten Turbulenzen des Seelenlebens zu Selbstfindung und neuem Glck, und es ist vor allem eines: eine wunderschne Hommage an das Leben. Es ist Yoshimotos hellsichtigstes und ernsthaftestes Buch, auch flapsig und skurril, vor allem aber von ungewhnlicher Zartheit und Poesie.

Schlafsucht, Alkohol, geheimnisvolle Begegnungen - drei Geschichten von der Nacht und vom Wiedererwachen aus tiefem Schlaf, drei Geschichten ber Frauen, deren Herzen und Seelen nicht zur Ruhe kommen.Diese drei Geschichten sind sozusagen Geschwister - in gewissem Sinne knnte man sie vielleicht sogar als eine einzige groe Erzhlung ansehen. (Banana Yoshimoto)

Als Mikage ihre Gromutter verliert, ist sie vollkommen allein in der groen Wohnung. Nur in der Kche, wo sie das Brummen des Khlschranks in den Schlaf wiegt, kommt sie zur Ruhe. Aus ihrer Einsamkeit holt sie Yuichi. Er schlgt ihr vor, zu ihm und seiner Mutter zu ziehen. Es entwickelt sich eine merkwrdige Wohngemeinschaft. Denn Eriko, die wunderschne Mutter Yuichis, hat eine schillernde Vergangenheit.

-Entering Banana Yoshimoto's fictional world is a little like living as an expatriate in Tokyo--everyday things are disconcertingly different. The exotic lurks around every corner. . . . Amrita is difficult to forget.- --San Francisco Chronicle
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 Amrita, now in Grove Press paperback, when a celebrated actress dies under shocking circumstances,...

-Yoshimoto's elegant, fey touch with such weighty themes as despair and fate, and] her urban images distilled and shimmering as haiku . . . continue to make her a welcome and uniquely assured voice.- --Paper magazine
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 Lizard, now available in Grove Press paperback, Yoshimoto deftly fuses traditional and pop culture to create contemporary portraits...