Mieko Kawakami On Sisters In Yellow, Grief & The Books That Shaped Her
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Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami is out now
Out today, Sisters in Yellow is the fifth novel by Japanese poet and author Mieko Kawakami to be translated into English – but it first appeared serialised in Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun from July 2021 to October 2022 before being published in book form in February 2023. As such, the 448-page novel was written in instalments over the course of a year and several months, a change for the author known for penning the international bestseller Breasts and Eggs (2020) and the International Booker-nominated Heaven (2021).
‘But the medium of serialization didn’t really have an effect on the writing style I chose,’ Kawakami tells C&TH. ‘Up until Sisters in Yellow, I’ve always taken a lot of steps in the planning process before I begin a novel, and I have a clear image of the plot, but not this time. Let me compare the process to building a house: I started off with only a barebones floorplan. Then as I wrote, I was scrutinizing the choices for the wallpaper, the lighting fixtures, the rugs and furniture for each room. And naturally all of my characters are fictional, but they are also amalgamations of all the people that have been in my life – people from my past, people who have passed away. I hear their voices and remember the time we shared, which all mixes together into my characters.’
The result is a stylish noir novel that transcends genre – but fans of Kawakami’s previous novels will be pleased to see the author’s distinct insight into the female body and perceptive philosophical questions surrounding gender, class and ethics are all present and correct. Described as Kawakami’s first thriller, in Sisters in Yellow we follow three women who pull us into Tokyo’s underbelly, brimming with secrets and shocking acts as a 60-year-old woman stands trial for holding a girl in captivity for many years. But when she wrote it, Kawakami ‘wasn’t really thinking about genre’, the author tells us. ‘Themes of money and crime are long-standing and ubiquitous in literature, and I thought I could use them to examine the limits and possibilities of sisterhood.
‘If I were to sum up this novel,’ Kawakami continues, ‘it would be a coming-of-age story for the protagonist Hana.’ But labels don’t scare her. ‘My goal is to write about feelings and scenes that haven’t been written yet, so I’m always happy when readers discover new facets of my work, new ways of reading that I hadn’t even imagined,’ Kawakami says. ‘The fact that a book can gain new meanings shows that readers are seriously engaging with it through their own experiences.’
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Beginning as a singer, poet and nationally famous blogger, Kawakami ‘never wanted to be a writer,’ she admits. ‘I just kind of wound up here.’ More than a decade on from her first work being published, Kawakami has received awards – including shortlistings for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction – and English is just one of 40 languages her work can be read in. With Sisters in Yellow translated by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio – new translators for Kawakami – the writer describes the process as ‘strange and wonderful’.
‘I have so much respect and gratitude for my translators,’ she says. ‘I get messages from readers all over the world. They send photos and videos through social media, too, and I can tell that younger readers especially have really connected with Heaven, almost like it’s become a part of them. The other day, I saw my work mentioned in a news article from Kerala – and I can’t even read one letter of Malayalam. It makes me so grateful that my work has reached so many corners of the world.’
Distinctly Japanese, perhaps it’s Kawakami’s focus on everyday life and its myriad emotions that makes her writing feel palpably universal. ‘My stories and scenes and descriptions are inspired by things like the way the light falls onto an object, a coat on someone I passed by, a house mid-demolition,’ the writer explains. ‘All of us are pushed onto life’s stage, and so many of us exit without ever speaking to each other. That fact alone never ceases to amaze me. I’ve had those same questions and feelings of amazement ever since I was a child – so that’s where my themes emerge from.’
Titled 黄色い家 (Kiiroi Ie, often translated as Yellow House) in Japan, this is Kawakami’s latest release the world over (excluding her essay collection published in summer 2023, yet to make its way to the UK). On the gap, Kawakami says: ‘My mother passed away two years ago, and I still haven’t recovered from the loss.’ When she returns to writing, she says: ‘I can sense that I will be writing about illness and caregiving, what it feels like for a daughter to lay her mother to rest – something that sooner or later we all go through. I’ll need to tackle those themes to write again. The reality of that experience was extremely hard, but I want to let the people who are going to go through it after me know that they’ll be all right, that they don’t need to be so scared.’
Until then, C&TH picked Mieko’s literary memories for the latest edition of Shelf Life, where book-lovers tell us about the reads that shaped them. From Dostoyevsky to Beatrix Potter, you can find her picks below.
Shelf Life: Mieko Kawakami
This book made me a reader…
Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth by Hermann Hesse (1919)
The way Hesse describes the end of a friendship – especially that brief moment when it is recalled – is just amazing.
This book was formative in my youth…
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
I was so amazed to realise that literature could make you sit with philosophy and ethics and still be entertaining. Crime and Punishment also made me realise you could let your characters just talk and talk.
This book is one I can’t stop returning to…
Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
I love the final chapter, ‘Penelope’. Sometimes I read it out loud to myself while I’m soaking in the bath. I’ll read other chapters that way, too.
This book broadened my horizons…
Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1901)
I actually translated Peter Rabbit into Japanese a few years ago. Through animals, Potter wrote about the body and the fundamental elements of society; I’d always known she was well-educated, but it was through the process of translating her that I came to see just how amazing and thorough her observational powers were.
This book is my comfort blanket…
The Bible
My mother was a compassionate woman and a Protestant. In her final days, sometimes my work made it impossible for me to be at her side, so instead, we’d call and read to each other from the Psalms.
This book is my guilty pleasure…
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro (2001)
Something about Munro’s stories always makes me feel a little guilty. They expose all the feelings I most want to hide, and make me imagine how unbearable it would be if someone could see those feelings inside me. But then in her fiction, it’s like I’m watching that happening to someone else…
I can’t stop talking about this book right now…
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Coming of Age (1970) and Carolin Emcke’s Weil es sagbar ist (Because we can speak; 2013), both of which I’m reading in Japanese translation.
I can’t wait for this book to hit the shelves…
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2023)
It’s a novel about space and earth, about the people living in the locked room that is the International Space Station. As soon as I heard about it, I wanted to know how Harvey had written that situation, and I can’t wait for the Japanese translation to come out. I got to say hi to her at the Berlin International Literature Festival, and she was absolutely wonderful.
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who will listen…
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1959)
No matter how peaceful or blessed your life, sooner or later you’ll always find yourself up the creek without a paddle. I want to see what humor can do in those moments. Knowing that even though Vonnegut is gone, he lived and left us his amazing work – I can sleep at night.
Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami
Translated by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio
Hardback, £16.99
