**Longlisted for the PEN Translation PrizeThe internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and heartfelt story of a young woman haunted by her childhood and the inescapable bitterness that inevitably comes from knowing the truth**Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonit...

The acclaimed debut of Japan's "master storyteller" ( Chicago Tribune).With the publication of Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, the literary world realized that Banana 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, t...

A pair of thematically linked novellas from the acclaimed author of Lizard, Amrita, and Goodbye Tsugumi.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 bestseller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardbo...

A shape-shifter arrives at Tokyo harbour in human form, set to embark on an unstoppable rampage through the city’s train network…A young woman is accompanied home one night by a reclusive student, and finds herself lured into a flat full of eerie Egyptian artefacts…A man suspects his young wife’s obsession with picnicking every weekend in the city’s parks hides a darker motive…At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many outsiders: a city of bewilderi...

What if the one person you're falling for is the one person you can't trust? When Emma Carter meets Jake Lawson, he's charming, mysterious, and running from a past that won't let him go. As danger closes in, secrets unravel, and Emma must decide—will she fight for the truth, or will his lies destroy them both?

"You want to do it with me, don't you?" Maoka, a serious businessman who doesn't express a lot of emotions on his face, finds solace in drinking coffee poured for him by the handsome barista at the coffee shop nearby, Botan. He stops by Botan's shop after work on his way home and is given a "love potion" by a lady he helped on the street. He gives the love potion to Botan on the spur of the moment, and all of a sudden Botan's face is turned into that of a ravenous beast on the prowl for hi...

What if everything that broke you was always working for you — and the universe had receipts?Life's Drama — The Banana Lama, Volume I is the no-filter, darkly comic memoir-meets-manual that follows one woman's spectacular crash through childhood chaos, addiction, abuse, and dysfunction — and the even more spectacular crawl back out.Five complete modules. Five universal human messes examined without therapy jargon, toxic positivity, or tidy conclusions.Module I — Why...

So you got sober. Congratulations. Your nervous system immediately found a replacement.

Winner of the Tanizaki Prize in 2022, her latest short story collection from 2021, Mittens and Pity is what Yoshimoto calls the greatest achievement of her writing life since Dead-End MemoriesSet between Kanazawa, Helsinki, Taipei, Rome, Hong Kong, and Hachijo-jima, the six stories collected here depict people who are struggling with recent loss and coming to terms with the truth of living with the memory.In the title story, a couple takes...

"You want to do it with me, don't you?" Maoka, a serious businessman who doesn't express a lot of emotions on his face, finds solace in drinking coffee poured for him by the handsome barista at the coffee shop nearby, Botan. He stops by Botan's shop after work on his way home and is given a "love potion" by a lady he helped on the street. He gives the love potion to Botan on the spur of the moment, and all of a sudden Botan's face is turned into that of a ravenous beast on the prowl for hi...

"You want to do it with me, don't you?" Maoka, a serious businessman who doesn't express a lot of emotions on his face, finds solace in drinking coffee poured for him by the handsome barista at the coffee shop nearby, Botan. He stops by Botan's shop after work on his way home and is given a "love potion" by a lady he helped on the street. He gives the love potion to Botan on the spur of the moment, and all of a sudden Botan's face is turned into that of a ravenous beast on the prowl for hi...

"You want to do it with me, don't you?" Maoka, a serious businessman who doesn't express a lot of emotions on his face, finds solace in drinking coffee poured for him by the handsome barista at the coffee shop nearby, Botan. He stops by Botan's shop after work on his way home and is given a "love potion" by a lady he helped on the street. He gives the love potion to Botan on the spur of the moment, and all of a sudden Botan's face is turned into that of a ravenous beast on the prowl for hi...