Amrita - Softcover

Yoshimoto, Banana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802124135 ISBN 13: 9780802124135

Publisher: Grove Press, 2018

Synopsis

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, she leaves behind an older sister, Sakumi, who suffers from memory loss in the wake of an accident. Struggling to remember whom she loves and what she lost, Sakumi embarks on a unique emotional journey, accompanied by her dead sister’s lover and her clairvoyant kid brother. In Amrita, Yoshimoto proves, once again, her prowess as an imaginative yet grounded storyteller as she takes Sakumi and readers on a compelling expedition through grief, dreams, and shadows, to a place of transformation and discovery.

Yoshimoto’s most fully realized work to date. . . . Her firm grasp of her characters, her surefooted prose and her wide-eyed exploration of everything from American pop culture to the Japanese language make this one of the most satisfying books of the summer.” Time Out New York

About this title

Review

"Blood ties seemed unrelated to how we were living," Sakumi, the young narrator of Amrita, begins portentously. The "we" of the family comprises a strange blend--Sakumi's mother, twice married (widowed and divorced); a telepathic younger brother; a cousin; and her mother's childhood friend. Grief over the tragic death of Mayu, Sakumi's flamboyant younger sister, binds them together. But grief is not the only obstacle to happiness and wholeness for Sakumi, who loses her memory in a fall. Grief shocked into awareness by memories retrieved--such is the thread that allows Sakumi to piece together her own identity and press toward acceptance of her sister's death.

Banana Yoshimoto's first novel, Kitchen (1991), traversed the territory of love and loss. Its fabulous success in Japan and the U.S. had to do with her distinct sensibility, a contemporary voice arising from a tradition-conscious culture. Amrita also ventures through the minefield of familial loss, but with a style less driven by the bizarre interface of tradition and pop culture.

About the Author

Banana Yoshimoto has won numerous prizes in her native Japan, and her first book, Kitchen, has sold millions of copies worldwide. Her books have been translated and published in more than twenty countries. She lives in Tokyo.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0802124135
• ISBN 13: 9780802124135
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384