Breasts and Eggs

hardcover, 448 pages

Published April 7, 2020 by Europa Editions.

ISBN:
978-1-60945-587-3
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5 stars (1 review)

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. 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 summer's day eight years later, Natsu, during a journey back to her native city, confronts her anxieties about growing old alone and childless.

Bestselling author Mieko Kawakami mixes stylistic inventiveness and riveting emotional depth to tell a story of contemporary womanhood in Japan.

6 editions

reviewed Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Kawakami stan.

5 stars

What a beautiful book. I was scared by the reviews calling it a "feminist novel" but it was not what I was expecting. Whenever I read someone describing something as "feminist", I brace myself for something superficial, something that can only be envisioned in the realm of white feminism. This was not it. Granted, I have just recently started reading modern literature and this was my first real taste of Japanese literature, but this book felt like nothing I have ever read before. I have never read a book about women so profound and raw. I am enamoured with Mieko Kawakami writing and persona. I am already planning a reread (what have I become?).