Kitchen

Kitchen
Author	Banana Yoshimoto
Original title	キッチン
Translator	Megan Backus
Publisher	Grove Press
Publication date	1988
Published in English	1993
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	152
ISBN	ISBN 0-8021-1516-0
Preceded by	None
Followed by	English: NP (novel)

Kitchen （キッチン）is a novel written by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto (よしもとばなな）in 1988 and translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus.

Although one may notice a certain Western influence in Yoshimoto's style, Kitchen is still critically recognised as an example of contemporary Japanese literature; The Independent, The Times and The New Yorker have all reviewed the novel favourably.

Most editions also include a novella entitled Moonlight Shadow, which is also a tragedy dealing with loss and love.

There have been two films made of the story, a Japanese TV movie and a more widely released version produced in Hong Kong by Yim Ho in 1997.

Plot

In this novel, a young Japanese woman named Mikage Sakurai struggles to overcome the death of her grandmother. She gradually grows close to one of her grandmother's friends from a flower shop and ends up staying with him and his transsexual mother.

The novel centers around food and its preparation. From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a restaurant critic to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into life of a young Japanese woman and her discoveries about food and love.

Awards

• 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize – November, 1987^[1]
• 16th Izumi Kyoka Literary Prize – January, 1988^[1]
• 39th Best Newcomer Artists – August, 1988^[1]

Book information

Kitchen (English edition) by Banana Yoshimoto

• Hardcover - ISBN 0-8021-1516-0 published by Grove Press
• Paperback - ISBN 0-671-88018-7 published by Washington Square Press

External links

• New York Times review

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Banana Yoshimoto - profile

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