Breasts and Eggs

hardcover, 448 pages

Published April 7, 2020 by Europa Editions.

ISBN:
978-1-60945-587-3
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4 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.

7 editions

Boiling women down to the parts

4 stars

Content warning Gender essentialism? A bit of possible transphobia