Kitchen

Kitchen is a novella, in fact comprising two separate stories: the eponymous one and “Moonlight Shadow”, which was arguably better. Similar to the style with which Haruki Murakami is most associated, Yoshimoto manages to meld the quotidian with the surreal, containing an ability to convey a unique sense of mood in just a few words/sentences. The common ground shared by both stories is that unanticipated events can produce serendipitous outcomes. There is a call to arms for basic emotions: a capacity to love, forgive, and have the strength to overcome adversity. To achieve all this in an economy of words is no small feat: 8/10.

By Banana Yoshimoto