author spotlight: mieko kawakami

Mieko Kawakami is a Japanese writer and poet from Osaka. She started working as a hostess and bookstore clerk before pursuing a singing career during which she released three albums. She eventually quit music to focus on writing and has since won numerous awards for her work. Her writing is known for its poetic prose and insights into the female body, ethical questions, and the dilemmas of modern society. Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, called her his favorite young novelist and has described her writing as "ceaselessly growing and evolving."

All The Lovers in the Night

Summary: A socially isolated proofreader begins to reenter the world through a quiet romance, forcing her to confront her loneliness, self-worth, and desire for connection.

Themes: Isolation, urban loneliness, female autonomy, vulnerability, intimacy and identity.

Breasts and Eggs

Summary: A frank and moving portrait of three women navigating body image, reproductive choices, and personal agency in a society with rigid expectations of femininity.

Themes: Motherhood, female bodies, fertility, societal norms, economic and emotional independence.

Heaven

Summary: A 14-year-old boy who is bullied for his lazy eye forms a secret bond with a classmate, confronting the meaning of cruelty, passivity, and moral resistance.

Themes: Bullying, powerlessness, philosophical resistance, trauma, friendship as survival.

Ms Ice Sandwich

Summary: A young boy becomes fascinated with a silent, mysterious woman who works at a sandwich counter, processing his grief and confusion through this quiet obsession.

Themes: Childhood perception, grief, loneliness, emotional repression, fleeting connections.