We feel our feet touch the ground as we realise the significance of our existence. With simple and short sentences, her prose seeps into your soul – leaving an unforgettable emotional mark. What makes her literary prize-winning novels remarkable is their feeling: immersive, dream-like, and atmospheric. New readers of Banana Yoshimoto must not expect elaborate plots. ‘Instead of finely detailing a scene for the reader, I prefer the reader to sketch out something using all five senses’ (Banana Yoshimoto)
‘To me a kitchen represents some distant longing engraved on my soul.’ The feeling of Banana Yoshimoto
Similarly in Kitchen, following the passing of both her parents and grandparents, Mikage ‘wished my heart would break and get it over with’ but then finds joy in the methodical process of cooking. For Satsuki in Moonlight Shadow, morning running helps her process the death of her boyfriend (with whom she was with for 4 years). Young women dealing with grief feature not only in the two stories which make up Kitchen (‘Kitchen’ and ‘Moonlight Shadow’) – but in all her translated Japanese novels.Īlthough death, loss and loneliness form Banana’s favourite tropes, her characters yearn for and find meaning in their lives after tragedy. Her debut novel Kitchen (1988) – written while waitressing at a Tokyo golf club – sold six million copies within two years in Japan, sparking ‘Bananamania’ across the country. ‘To me a kitchen represents some distant longing engraved on my soul’īanana Yoshimoto is one of Japan’s finest contemporary writers.
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