Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world and Kitchen the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers love tragedy and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage the heroine of Kitchen is an orphan raised by her grandmother who has passed away. Grieving she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses Yoshimoto spins a lovely evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story "Moonlight Shadow " are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.
