Banana Yoshimoto

The first book I read by Banana was "Kitchen". My mom gave it to me. Most of the good books I've read I can thank my mom for giving to me; she has been in the publishing industry for over 20 years.

I absolutely adore this collection of two short novellas...
Both of them are about death and both of them have strong sentimental value to me. I first read the book shortly after Caitie Ferris died in a car accident. A close friend of my older sister's, Caitie was someone I really looked up to. Her death seemed to shake our entire high school and our public and private grieving was palpable.

"Kitchen" tells the story of a young girl who is orphaned and then further left alone by her grandmother's passing. She ends up pulling her futon into the kitchen to sleep at night because its her favorite room in any house and she finds comfort there. She eventually moves into the apartment of a drag queen and her son in Tokyo to heal.

The second story: "Moonlight Shadow", deals with a young woman's grieving process over the death of her lover and an unlikely friendship that develops during that time. The friendship begins in the early morning hours, on a bridge, after an intense run with a thermos full of tea in hand.

The writing comforted me. Yoshimoto describes food and feelings in a way that I really connected with. I began reading her novel "NP" several years after I first encountered her as an author and I never connected with it.

But "Kitchen" is a book I can own and re read. There is something very romantic about it being a translated work.

The book was first published in Japan in 1988 and translated into English in 1993.