The classic Japanese bestseller published in English for the very first time - a darkly funny and relatable book portraying the lives of five women'Witty, wise and thought-provoking' Cecelia Ahern'Crackles and pops with humour, empathy and intelligence' Lisa Owens, author of Not Working'So brilliantly written that I kept trying to memorise sentences in order to repeat them to people later' Roxy Dunn, author of As Young as ThisIzumi needs to get a job.Haruka needs to stop talking about how she once had cancer.Kato needs to get through a shift at the convenience store without being harassed.Mito needs to break up with her boyfriend - or marry him.Sumie just needs somewhere to live.In this classic Japanese bestseller, published in English twenty-five years after it took Japan by storm, the lives of five ordinary women are depicted with irresistible humour and searing emotional insight.

About the Author

Fumio Yamamoto burst onto the Japanese literary scene in 1999 when she won the Yoshikawa Eiji New Writer's Prize for her book Loveaholic. Her follow-up in 2000, The Dilemmas of Working Women, won the prestigious Naoki Prize in Literature, before becoming a bestselling phenomenon. Her final novel, Rotations and Revolutions, was awarded both the Shimasei Literature Prize and the Chuo Koron Prize in 2021, and her journals, offering an intimate portrait of dealing with depression and then with pancreatic cancer, also became hugely popular. Yamamoto passed away in 2021 in Karuizawa, Nagano.

About the Translator

Brian Bergstrom is a lecturer and translator who has lived in Chicago, Kyoto, and Yokohama, and is currently based in Montreal. His most recent translations include Sunrise: Radiant Stories by award-winning author Erika Kobayashi and Slow Down by Marxist philosopher Kohei Saito.

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