Hardboiled & Hard Luck

Banana Yoshimoto

Sep 2015 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

About this ebook

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 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 hotel—stopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shop—a sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni’s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto’s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan’s, and the world’s, most beloved writers.
 
“A sparkling book.” —The Washington Post

Ratings and reviews

This book will definetly help you get through hardship, will remind you that it dosnt matter if that special someone is gone, they live in our hearts and soul. The memories keep them alive. Banana Yoshimoto its the best when it comes to this kind of subjects. I live her writing.

A short but very satisfying read ! There is something the way Japanese people write stories that is incredible .

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto was born in 1964. She has won numerous prizes in her native Japan, and her first book, "Kitchen, " has sold millions of copies worldwide. She lives in Tokyo. "Kitchen" and her highly praised novel, "N.P., " are both available from Washington Square Press.MICHAEL EMMERICH graduated from Princeton University. After completing research in Japanese literature studies at Ritsumeikan University in Tokyo, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. He is the highly acclaimed translator of Nobel laureate Yasunari KawabatasFirst Snow on Fuji; Banana Yoshimotos Asleep, Goodbye Tsugumi and Hardboiled & Hard Luck; Genichiro Takahashis Sayonara Gangsters; Mari Akasakas Vibrator; and Taichi Yamadas In Search of a Distant Voice.