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，日本現代文學天後，本名吉本真秀子。與村上春樹、村上龍同為日本當代文壇代錶人物，作品屢獲國內外各大奬項，長期占據暢銷書排行榜，作品已被譯介到三十多個國傢和地區，受到歐美、和亞洲各國讀者的高度關注，被譽為“療傷係文學 ”，在世界各地形成“芭娜娜熱潮”。芭娜娜的文字簡單純淨，富有現代感，流淌著迷惘、憂鬱和哀愁。但迷惘中找到方嚮，憂鬱中透齣陽光，哀愁中煉成堅強。