Sisters in Yellow

<p><b>'With <i>Sisters in Yellow</i>, [Kawakami] proves she is still the most exciting Japanese novelist at work today' </b><i><b>The Times</b></i><br><br><b>A heart-stopping story of teenage girls on the brink in 1990s Tokyo from the International Booker Prize-Shortlisted author of <i>HEAVEN and </i><i>BREASTS AND EGGS</i></b><br><br>Hana has nothing but she's hopeful. She's fifteen years old. She lives in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar. They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears.<br><br>Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana's dark world. Together they set up Lemon, a bar that, despite its shabby setting and seedy clientele, becomes a haven for Hana. Suddenly Hana has a job she loves, friends to share her days with, and the glittering promise of money. She feels like a normal girl. She feels invincible.<br><br>But in the narrow alleys of Sangenjaya, nothing is as it seems. Soon all of Hana's hope, her optimism, and her drive, will be tested to the limit . . .<br><br>A story of enduring friendship and deep betrayal, <i>Sisters in Yellow</i> is a masterpiece of teenage dreams and adult cruelties that confirms Mieko Kawakami as one of the great writers of her generation.<br><br><b>Readers love <i>Sisters in Yellow</i>:</b><br><b>'My new favourite book of ALL TIME. The ending absolutely destroyed me.'</b><br><b>'A powerful, emotionally charged exploration of friendship, survival and the quiet brutality of inequality'<br>'Mieko Kawakami doesn't need a high-speed chase to create tension; she lets a heavy, unsettling mood seep into the floorboards'<br>'Confirms Kawakami's place as one of the most vital voices in contemporary literature'<br>'The character building is second to none . . . Mieko Kawakami is a generational talent'<br>'This is Kawakami at her best. Not for a second does the pace let up.' </b><br></p>