Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Mieko Kawakami

Breasts and Eggs

Cover: Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami

Mieko Kawakami

Breasts and Eggs

2021, pp. 432, Paperback
ISBN: 9781609456702
Translated by: Sam Bett, David Boyd
Region: Japan
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
$ 16.95
Reading Group Guide Reading Group Guide Reading Group Guide

The book

The story of three women by a writer hailed by Haruki Murakami as Japan’s most important contemporary novelist, WINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE.

“BREASTS AND EGGS took my breath away.”—HARUKI MURAKAMI

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting emotional depth, Kawakami is today one of Japan’s most important and best-selling writers. She exploded onto the cultural scene first as a musician, then as a poet and popular blogger, and is now an award-winning novelist.

Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless. Kawakami’s first novella My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, published in Japan in 2007, was awarded the Tsubouchi Shoyo Prize for Young Emerging Writers. The following year, she published Breasts and Eggs as a short novella, and won praise from Yoko Ogawa and Haruki Murakami. The newly expanded Breasts and Eggs is her first novel to be published in English.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2020
Vogue・Thrillist・The Millions・ Literary Hub・Now Toronto・Metropolis Japan

“One of Japan’s brightest stars is set to explode across the global skies of literature . . . Kawakami is both a writer’s writer and an entertainer, a thinker and constantly evolving stylist who manages to be highly readable and immensely popular.”—Japan Times

“Mieko Kawakami lobbed a literary grenade into the fusty, male-dominated world of Japanese fiction with Breasts and Eggs.”— The Economist

“I can never forget the sense of pure astonishment I felt when I first read Mieko Kawakami’s novella Breasts and Eggs . . . Kawakami is always ceaselessly growing and evolving.”—HARUKI MURAKAMI, author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The author

Mieko Kawakami
Mieko Kawakami is the author of the international bestseller Breasts and Eggs, a 2020 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and the highly acclaimed Heaven, one of TIME’s Best Books of 2021. Her most recent novel is All the Lovers in the Night, which Hamilton Cain described as “her most accomplished novel yet” in Oprah Daily. Born in Osaka, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and in 2007 published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World. Known for their poetic qualities, insights into the female body, and preoccupation with ethics and modern society, her books have been translated into over twenty languages and are available all over the world. Kawakami’s literary awards include the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. She lives in Tokyo.

Press

From the same country

  • Cover: Love at Six Thousand Degrees - Maki Kashimada

    Maki Kashimada

    Love at Six Thousand Degrees

    2023, pp. 128, $ 17.00
    WINNER OF THE MISHIMA YUKIO PRIZE An ordinary housewife finds herself haunted by visions of a mushroom cloud and abruptly leaves her husband...
  • Cover: Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses) - Maki Kashimada

    Maki Kashimada

    Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses)

    2021, pp. 144, $ 16.00
    A story from one of Japan's rising literary stars about memory, loss, and love, Touring the Land of the Dead is a mesmerizing combination...
  • Cover: The Passenger: Japan - AA.VV.

    AA.VV.

    The Passenger: Japan

    2020, pp. 192, $ 22.00
    A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.
  • Cover: The Ten Loves of Nishino - Hiromi Kawakami

    Hiromi Kawakami

    The Ten Loves of Nishino

    2019, pp. 240, $ 17.00
    Best-selling and beloved Japanese author Hiromi Kawakami ( The Nakano Thrift Shop) tells the story of an enigmatic man through the voices of...
  • Cover: Farewell, My Orange - Iwaki Kei

    Iwaki Kei

    Farewell, My Orange

    2018, pp. 144, $ 14.00
    Two immigrants, Salimah and Sayuri, navigate isolation, a new language, and devastating loss on their way to a lifelong friendship.
  • Cover: The Nakano Thrift Shop - Hiromi Kawakami

    Hiromi Kawakami

    The Nakano Thrift Shop

    2017, pp. 224, $ 16.00
    Featuring a delightfully offbeat cast of characters, The Nakano Thrift Shop is a generous-hearted portrayal of human relationships by one of Japan's...

More suggestions

  • Cover: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning - Keiran Goddard

    Keiran Goddard

    I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

    2024, pp. 208, $ 27.00
    Told from the alternating perspectives of five friends who grew up together on the same council estate, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning...
  • Cover: No One Dies Yet - Kobby Ben Ben

    Kobby Ben Ben

    No One Dies Yet

    2024, pp. 384, $ 18.00
    A genre-breaking novel from a powerful new African voice
  • Cover: The Fair Folk - Su Bristow

    Su Bristow

    The Fair Folk

    2024, pp. 400, $ 18.00
    From prize-winning author Su Bristow comes a fascinating coming-of-age novel about magic and the choices that define future generations.
  • Cover: The Other Profile - Irene Graziosi

    Irene Graziosi

    The Other Profile

    2024, pp. 224, $ 27.00
    A story of a conflicted friendship and its unraveling, told against the background of an ever-present, mind-twisting social media-verse
  • Cover: One Hour of Fervor - Muriel Barbery

    Muriel Barbery

    One Hour of Fervor

    2024, pp. 196, $ 26.00
    From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story of one man’s promise to keep a secret that will keep...
  • Cover: The Dolphin House - Audrey Schulman

    Audrey Schulman

    The Dolphin House

    2024, pp. 320, $ 17.95
    Based on the true story of the 1965 “dolphin house” experiment, this spellbinding novel captures the tenor of the social experiments of the 1960’s...

Join Our Newsletter and receive a FREE eBook!

Stay updated on Europa’s forthcoming releases, author tours and major news.

Are you a bookseller? Click here!

Are you a librarian? Click here!

X