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'A tale of sisterhood as delicious and finely textured as the shaved-ice dessert its protagonists relish in... Bittersweet, nostalgic and easy to envision... a lovely, tender-hearted tale.'

Elle

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Rei, Kiki and Ai are three sisters whose lives have taken them on very different paths. They have lost both parents, one way or another, and found their own ways of carrying on. Eldest daughter Rei is spiky and sensible, distracting herself with an all-consuming job at a financial corporation in London. Big-hearted Kiki is a single mother in Tokyo, juggling the demands of her young son and the cantankerous elderly residents of the retirement home she works in. Ai, the free-spirited youngest, is a Japanese pop idol who has found fame and fortune but lost herself along the way.

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When Ai is embroiled in a scandal and thrust into the spotlight, Rei must pick up the pieces of her family once more. Over the course of a summer in their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters reunite with their sharp-tongued grandmother, entertain Kiki's irrepressible son and silently worry about Ai, carefully avoiding the subject of their mother's death fifteen years before. But silence between sisters can only last for so long . .

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One of NPR's Best Books of the Year

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'A bittersweet and wry family drama for fans of Sally Rooney.'

Library Journal

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'Inviting and wistful... readers are in for a treat.'

Publishers Weekly

 

'Itami's voice is sharp, funny and deeply empathetic, weaving together wit and poignancy in a character-driven narrative that feels fresh, funny and painfully real.'

Booklist

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'The perfect summer read.' 

Service 95 Bookclub 

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'I adore Emily Itami's writing.'

Florence Knapp, author of The Names

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'Life affirming and transporting . . . it's wonderful.'

Kate Sawyer, author of Getting Away​

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'The writing is just beautiful . . . ultimately the feeling this gorgeous family saga leaves you with is hope and optimism . . . this novel has it all.'

Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls 

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'It's been a while since I devoured a book in a weekend. So evocative of Japan, so forgiving of human nature and so much love on these pages for the bonds of family and memory that shape you . . . This book has captured my heart.' 

Emma Strenner, author of My Other Heart 

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