The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto
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.
REVIEWS
"Casts a delicate spell . . . Between Yoshimoto and her translator, Asa Yoneda, there is something otherworldly . . . The novel taps into anxiety about memory, childhood and the peculiar feeling that there’s a hidden truth about ourselves we’ve forgotten, and if only we took pains to find it we might finally feel at home." —Genevieve Gaunt, The Spectator
"Yoshimoto packs a lot of detail and intrigue in this spare novel . . . A bestseller over three decades ago, readers familiar with Yoshimoto’s work will not want to miss this one. It is a welcomed addition to her oeuvre for English reading audiences and definitely worth the wait." —Shirley Quan, Library Journal (starred review)
"One of Japan’s most beloved contemporary authors . . . Yoshimoto infuses the familiar coming-of-age experience (leaving home, separation from parents) with (of course) unusual twists." —Booklist
PRODUCT DETAILS
Hardcover Edition
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
ISBN: 978-1640093713
Pages: 144