Sisters in Yellow

A heart-stopping story of teenage girls on the brink in 1990s Tokyo

By: Mieko Kawakami, Laurel Taylor - translator, Hitomi Yoshio - translator

Narrated by: Annie Q. Riegel

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'With Sisters in Yellow, [Kawakami] proves she is still the most exciting Japanese novelist at work today' The Times

From the International Booker Prize-Shortlisted author of Heaven and Breasts and Eggs.

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.

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.

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 . . .

A story of enduring friendship and deep betrayal, Sisters in Yellow is a masterpiece of teenage dreams and adult cruelties that confirms Mieko Kawakami as one of the great writers of her generation.

Critic reviews

This is not the Japan you find in novels about cats, cafés and bookshops. Kawakami draws back this cosy façade to reveal the grimy reality underneath — and she does it with consummate style. With Sisters in Yellow, she proves she is still the most exciting Japanese novelist at work today

Mieko Kawakami, Japan’s literary It Girl, has a heavy new novel out about money and desperation.

I can never forget the sense of pure astonishment I felt when I first read Mieko Kawakami (Haruki Murakami)

Mieko Kawakami is a genius (Naoise Dolan, author of The Happy Couple)

Kawakami is emerging as one of Japan's most prominent young literary voices