Breasts and Eggs - by Mieko Kawakami (Paperback)

About the Book

"Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko's daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations. On another hot summer's day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A BEST BOOK OF 2020
TIME Magazine・The Atlantic・Book Riot・Electric Literature・The New York Times (Notable Book of the Year)

The story of three women by a writer hailed by Haruki Murakami as Japan's most important contemporary novelist, WINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE.

On a sweltering summer day, Makiko travels from Osaka to Tokyo, where her sister Natsu lives. She is in the company of her daughter, Midoriko, who has lately grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with adolescence. The story of these three women reunited in a working-class neighborhood of Tokyo is told through the gaze of Natsu--thirty years old, an aspiring writer, haunted by hardships endured in her youth. Over the course of their few days together in the capital, Midoriko's silence will prove a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and family secrets.

On yet another blistering summer's day eight years later, Natsu, during a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.

One of Japan's most important and best-selling writers, Mieko Kawakami mixes stylistic inventiveness, wry humor, and riveting emotional depth to tell a story of contemporary womanhood in Japan. Breasts and Eggs recounts the intimate journeys of three women on the path to finding peace and futures they can call their own.

"Original and deeply moving...This book is a gift."--Laura van den Berg

Review Quotes

"A sharply observed and heartbreaking portrait of what it means to be a woman, in Japan and beyond."--TIME, The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020

"Fantastic."--Kat Chow, NPR

"Stunning."--Financial Times

"Raw, funny, mundane, heartbreaking."--Jane Yong Kim, The Atlantic, Best Books of 2020

"Kawakami writes with unsettling precision about the body...she is especially good at capturing its longings."--Katie Kitamura, The New York Times

"I can never forget the sense of pure astonishment I felt when I first read Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs."--Haruki Murakami

"Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami is as confronting and modern as its title suggests. I love Kawakami's depiction of what it is to be female today in Japan."--Natalie Portman, Natalie's Book Club

"Mieko Kawakami's characters live in a world that is made up almost entirely of women but is decidedly not made for them."--Sarah Chihaya, New York Review of Books

"A unique, direct voice--almost every page contains sentences that stop me in my tracks."--Marta Bausells, LitHub

"Will transcend cultural barriers and enchant readers."--Alina Cohen, New York Observer

"Mieko Kawakami's first full-scale novel to be translated from Japanese into English reveals what a Catherine Wheel of talent she is, how unplaceable and unique."--John Freeman, Literary Hub

"A striking portrait of contemporary working-class womanhood."--New Statesman

"Addresses the multifaceted nature of what it means to move through the world as a woman."--Ploughshares

"Kawakami's prose is bold, modern, and surprising. Breasts and Eggs is a moving story about womanhood and modern life told through the lens of a supremely confident writer."--An Yu, author of Braised Pork

"Within an affecting portrait-of-an-artist-in-transition, Kawakami deftly, deeply questions the assumptions of womanhood and family--the bonds and abuses, expectations and betrayals, choices and denials."--Terry Hong, Booklist

"A feminist masterwork."--Entertainment Weekly

"[Kawakami's] voice is intimate, musical, at times wry and powerfully observant to the inner lives of women and girls."--Kali Fajardo Anstine, ELLE Magazine

"Breasts and Eggs speaks to the stories of Lucia Berlin; there is the same sense of a dispassionate but honoring gaze cast on working-class women, dogged and unsentimental in their survival."--Hermione Hoby, 4 Columns

About the Author

Mieko Kawakami is the author of the internationally best-selling novel, Breasts and Eggs, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of TIME's Best 10 Books of 2020. Born in Osaka, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, in 2007. Her writing is known for its poetic qualities and its insights into the female body, ethical questions, and the dilemmas of modern society. Her books have been translated into many languages and are available all over the world. She has received numerous prestigious literary awards in Japan, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. Kawakami lives in Tokyo, Japan.