In cherished novels such as Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi , Banana Yoshimoto’s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardboiled , the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover’s death. As she nears her hotelstopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shopa sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni’s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto’s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan’s, and the world’s, most beloved writers.

吉本芭娜娜，日本现代文学天后，本名吉本真秀子。与村上春树、村上龙同为日本当代文坛代表人物，作品屡获国内外各大奖项，长期占据畅销书排行榜，作品已被译介到三十多个国家和地区，受到欧美、和亚洲各国读者的高度关注，被誉为“疗伤系文学 ”，在世界各地形成“芭娜娜热潮”。芭娜娜的文字简单纯净，富有现代感，流淌着迷惘、忧郁和哀愁。但迷惘中找到方向，忧郁中透出阳光，哀愁中炼成坚强。