The Premonition (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781640093713)

Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize

The internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and heartfelt story of a young woman haunted by her childhood and the inescapable bitterness that inevitably comes from knowing the truth

Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino.

No one understands her aunt's unusual lifestyle. For as long as Yayoi can remember, Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home, quietly, almost as though asleep. When she is not working, Yukino spends all day in her pajamas, clipping her nails and trimming her split ends. She eats only when she feels like it, and she often falls asleep lying on her side in the hallway. She sometimes wakes Yayoi at 2:00 a.m to be her drinking companion, sometimes serves flan in a huge mixing bowl for dinner, and watches Friday the 13th over and over to comfort herself. A child study desk, old stuffed animals--things Yukino wants to forget--are piled up in her backyard like a graveyard of her memories.

An instant bestseller in Japan when first published in 1988, The Premonition is finally available in English, translated by the celebrated Asa Yoneda.

Author: Banana Yoshimoto
ISBN-10: 1640093710
ISBN-13: 9781640093713
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Language: English
Published: 10/10/2023
Pages: 144
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2023 pg. 11
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 08/21/2023
Booklist 10/01/2023 pg. 27
Library Journal 10/27/2023 pg. 1