Mieko Kawakami, Japan’s literary It Girl, has a heavy new novel out about money and desperation.
“Sisters in Yellow” (“Kiiroi Ie”) follows the story of Hana, in her 40s at the start of the novel, and a group of women with whom she eked out a living in her 20s. Following the news of the arrest of an older woman from her past, the protagonist is thrown back into the memory of the years she spent working at a “sunakku” (a budget version of a hostess club) and the dangerous choices she was driven to in order to survive.
Released at the end of February as a single volume, the story was originally serialized over the course of a year in the Yomiuri Shimbun. The reception from readers and critics so far has been largely positive.