Kakigori Summer - by Emily Itami (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR

A wry and tender novel from the author of Fault Lines about three very different sisters reunited in adulthood for one short summer in coastal Japan, navigating domestic life with their sharp-edged grandmother and decidedly avoiding resurfaced memories of their mother's disappearance--for readers of Hello Beautiful and Blue Sisters.

"This novel had me hooked from the first chapter. Three sisters, Japan, the complexities of family bonds, love and loss. I got totally immersed in their lives. It's funny and insightful and poignant and uplifting . . . And a rare accolade--the most excellent and satisfying ending!" --Karen Angelico, author of Everything We Are

Rei, Kiki, and Ai are half-Japanese, half-British sisters divided by distance and circumstance. Ambitious Rei works in finance in London; Kiki is the single mother of a young son, working in a retirement home in Tokyo; and Ai, the youngest, is a peripatetic Japanese music idol. Bonded by the loss of their parents and their shared haafu identity, the sisters rely on each other as family, far-flung as they are.

When Ai is embroiled in a scandal, Rei and Kiki pause their own lives to rescue their baby sister. Over the course of a summer spent in their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters will reunite with their sharp-edged grandmother, care for Kiki's irrepressible son, and silently worry about Ai, all while carefully not talking about the circumstances of their mother's death fifteen years before. But silence between sisters can only last for so long...

A transporting and redemptive novel, Kakigori Summer is a hopeful meditation on love and loss, sisterhood and family, and a profound exploration of the stories we tell ourselves about our past that enable us to move forward into the future.

Review Quotes

"Itami (Fault Lines) serves up an inviting and wistful tale of three sisters who reunite during a crisis... Itami strikes just the right chord, showing how the sisters indulge their nostalgia for happier times even as they attempt to reckon with their painful memories. Readers are in for a treat." - Publishers Weekly - Publishers Weekly

"Itami writes the sisters as fully developed individuals with believable, strong bonds between them, and the seaside hometown is described vividly enough to almost be its own character. A bittersweet and wry family drama for fans of Sally Rooney." - Library Journal

"I adore Emily Itami's writing . . . Kakigori Summer is a novel about belonging, both within a family and the wider world, and I loved retreating into its cocoon of sibling humor as the sisters briefly stepped back to discover their place in it. Cozy, dreamy, although you're never too far from a line that's sharply astute." - Florence Knapp, author of The Names

"I loved Kakigori Summer . . . The sisters felt completely real, my sympathies finely balanced between all three of them and their different internal struggles were beautifully and poignantly evoked . . . I loved the well-crafted prose, the distinctive, slightly acerbic turns of phrase . . . joyful and uplifting too: the romantic and hopeful ending felt just right." - Kate Murray-Browne, author of One Girl Began

"This novel had me hooked from the first chapter. Three sisters, Japan, the complexities of family bonds, love and loss. I got totally immersed in their lives. It's funny and insightful and poignant and uplifting . . . And a rare accolade--the most excellent and satisfying ending!" - Karen Angelico, author of Everything We Are

"Itami's voice is sharp, funny, and deeply empathetic, weaving together wit and poignancy in a character-driven narrative that feels fresh, heartfelt, and painfully real. She deftly explores celebrity culture in Japan, the emotional toll of perfectionism, and the jagged, enduring bond between sisters who couldn't be more different but are bound by shared loss and love." - Booklist

"I knew by the end of the first page that this was going to be a book I'd return to again and again. Set across one summer in Tokyo, London and rural Japan, this story of three sisters may be modern but it casts a spell that feels timeless. Itami weaves corporate life, J-pop, sibling bonds and romance to create a novel of dreamy nostalgia; it's also deliciously acerbic and very funny. This is the most perfect book to see you through your own summer and I couldn't have loved it more" - Marianne Levy, author of Don't Forget to Scream

"A sensory journey through a summer on the Japanese coast and into the very corners of the hearts of sisters Rei, Kiki and Ai. Emily Itami's clean yet richly evocative prose puts us squarely in the centre of this family, their struggles, their grief, their delicious joy and love for one another. This is a story that is life affirming and transporting and universal whilst being so very, very specific and clear-eyed. It's wonderful." - Kate Sawyer, author of This Family

"The writing is just beautiful as is the way Emily captures place . . . I was on that beach with them and the way Emily makes you feel those sweet moments of joy when the sisters are together is just perfection. This novel balances the dark and light in a way I love . . . Ultimately the feeling this gorgeous family saga leaves you with is hope and optimism . . . It's a love story too. This novel has it all." - Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls

"This is a wonderful story about sisters rebonding and rethinking what they believed about their mother. It's a beautiful insight into Japanese culture." - Prima Book of the Month

"It has been a while since I devoured a book in a weekend. ... So evocative of Japan, so forgiving of human nature and so much love on these pages for the bonds of family and memory that shapes you. Bravo ... Kakigori Summer has captured my heart." - Emma Strenner, author of My Other Heart

"Kakigori Summer is a tale of sisterhood as delicious and finely textured as the shaved-ice dessert its protagonists relish in... Bittersweet, nostalgic, and easy to envision... The coastal setting is itself a character in this book, and perhaps one of the book's biggest selling points--Itami makes the landscape feel as real as the bond between the sisters. A lovely, tender-hearted tale." - Elle