The Premonition

THE PREMONITION was first published in 1988 in Japan the year Banana Yoshimoto made her debut. That year she published four novels and all became bestsellers in Japan including (and most famously) the international bestseller KITCHEN. She has published ten books in English translation including GOODBYE TSUGUMI ASLEEP MOSHI MOSHI and most recently DEAD-END MEMORIES. Her work has been translated and published in more than thirty countries. In Italy she won the Scanno Literary Prize in 1993 the Fendissime Literary Prize in 1996 the Maschera d'Argento Prize in 1999 and the Capri Award in 2011. She lives in Tokyo. <b>The deeply moving new novel from the beloved internationally bestselling author of <i>Kitchen.</i></b> Yoshimoto's novels rely less on the vicissitudes of plot than profound shifts deep within her characters: what unfolds isn't so much a series of suspenseful events as a growing understanding of human lives [...] with its gentle pace and relaxed first-person narration <i>The Premonition</i> may not appear substantial but it yields to patient generous reading. And for those unfamiliar with Yoshimoto's work it's a timely invitation to explore her unusual alluring world. This delicate precisely drawn novella packs a lot into its slender spine . . . Exquisite. This polished concise emotionally rewarding family drama originally written in 1988 explores how ghosts of the past determine the path to the future. Casts a delicate spell . . . In a creative landscape that is increasingly homogenised by an Anglo-American style it's refreshing to pick up literature that has not lost its thisness. The world that blossoms from Yoshimoto's text is unequivocally Japanese in the aesthetic vein known as mono no aware which roughly translates as 'the pathos of things' or 'a sensitivity to ephemera'. But beneath the poetics Yoshimoto's books confront serious themes . . . <i>The Premonition</i> taps into anxiety about memory childhood and the peculiar feeling that there's a hidden truth about ourselves we've forgotten and if only we took pains to find it we might finally feel at home. [Yoshimoto] made me believe again that it was possible to write honestly rigorously morally about the material reality of characters; to write toward human warmth as a reaffirmation of the bonds that tie us together. A nostalgia-inflected coming-of-age tale The Premonition sees Yoshimoto cast a subtle shadow over cosy domesticity by unpacking a young woman's haunting childhood memories and familial secrets. Yayoi grows up with a perfect family - but is haunted by the idea there is something about her past she has forgotten. So she decides to move in with her strange aunt and memories begin to be unearthed. . . Yoshimoto's writing is lucid earnest and disarming. Banana Yoshimoto is one of our greatest writers. There is no such thing as a stock character in Yoshimoto's fiction. She writes utterly without pretence. In Japan Yayoi lives with her parents and brother: the perfect family picture. But flashes of a sixth sense and a feeling that her real home is elsewhere undermine her place in the world When she moves in with her lone aunt Yokino who lives life her own peculiar way they little by little explore an unvisited past together. <b>Aloneness and connection beautifully expressed.</b> A master storyteller . . . The sensuality is subtle masked and extraordinarily powerful. Yoshimoto has always had this extraordinary ability to convey the ephemeral natures of her main characters in plain yet diaphanous language. <b>From the beloved bestselling author of <i>Kitchen </i>comes a deeply haunting heartwarming exploration of loneliness and painful memories set in Japan.</b><br><b></b><br><b>'Polished concise emotionally rewarding.' <i>Daily Mail</i></b><br><b></b><i><b>'</b></i><b>Reading Banana Yoshimoto is like taking a bracing cleansing bath.' LING MA</b><br><b>'Gorgeous . . . an invitation to explore [Yoshimoto's] unusual alluring world.' <i>The Telegraph</i></b><br><b></b><br><i>I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide ... It was the beginning of summer and I was nineteen years old.</i><br><br>Yayoi lives with her perfect loving family - something 'like you'd see in a Spielberg movie'. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood she is increasingly haunted by the sense that she's forgotten something important about her past.<br><br>Deciding to take a break she stays with her eccentric but beloved aunt Yukino. Living a life without order Yukino seems to be protecting herself but beneath this facade Yayoi starts to recover lost memories and everything she knows about her past threatens to change forever.<br><br> <b>'A sure and lyrical writer . . . Yoshimoto transforms the trite into the essential.' </b><i><b>The New Yorker</i></b><br><b><i></b></i><b>'Yoshimoto's novels are like jewel boxes.' </b><i><b>Vanity Fair</b></i> <b>'Yoshimoto's novels are like jewel boxes.' <i>Vanity Fair</i></b><br><b></b><br><b>The new novel from the bestselling author of the beloved classic <i>Kitchen.</i></b><br><i></i><br><i>I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide ... It was the beginning of summer and I was nineteen years old.</i><br><br>Yayoi lives with her perfect loving family - something 'like you'd see in a Spielberg movie'. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood she is increasingly haunted by the sense that she's forgotten something important about her past.<br><br>Deciding to take a break she goes to stay with her mysterious but beloved aunt Yukino whose strange behaviour includes waking Yayoi at two in the morning to be her drinking companion watching Friday the 13th repeatedly and throwing away all the things she wants to forget.<br><br>Living a life without order Yukino seems to be protecting herself but beneath this facade Yayoi starts to recover lost memories and everything she knows about her past threatens to change forever.