Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

List Price: $16.00 Details

Save: $3.61 (23%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, July 27 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Select delivery location

In Stock

[{"displayPrice":"$12.39","priceAmount":12.39,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"39","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"tdMhlSvL9613VIxoKjY9U4ncj9YGXyeVaAnVmSn5rdUl10S3%2BJ1eJHvBFl8z6nbOimGDQ2fARHqOWZpvkMqMoX3GxDWFoyoC42JugnvIJSDDDEEuVidb7PZ8TUu7Qpce6mpjPeuznCo%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0},{"displayPrice":"$7.98","priceAmount":7.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"tdMhlSvL9613VIxoKjY9U4ncj9YGXyeVoqNnbRBdUM0z79%2BZJrDYJt%2BMLvrv04TyuTLO7Ytk5IeD2wVY5GcG0PZt7TL%2FOVFKLNzzlg6Jswqs6CXKqLbY3SvNnR94cLpdxrnt2Eme8EPbbbkWtu98sEMnACNXTt3S%2BJdPhi85jADp381bA6qMvok1RPQwFaQl","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]

$$12.39 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery July 30 - August 5 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Friday, July 28

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by MjTreasuresCT

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$11.29
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Mortuus Books

Added

Not added

$11.29
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: kozybooks85

Added

Not added

$10.25
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: CatharsisBooks

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Banana Yoshimoto

Kitchen Paperback – April 17, 2006

by Banana Yoshimoto (Author), Megan Backus (Translator)

4.3 2,061 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

–

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$17.69

$25.30

$1.35

Paperback

"Please retry"

$12.39

$7.98

$2.37

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$15.38

$11.40

—

Kindle
$9.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
Hardcover
$17.69

26 Used from $1.35 2 New from $25.30 2 Collectible from $30.00
Paperback
$12.39

68 Used from $2.37 28 New from $7.98 1 Collectible from $19.99
MP3 CD
$15.38

8 New from $11.40

Purchase options and add-ons

"Ms. Yoshimoto's writing is lucid, earnest and disarming. ... [It] seizes hold of the reader's sympathy and refuses to let go." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

With the publication of Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, the literary world realized that Yoshimoto was a young writer of enduring talent whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.

In a whimsical style that recalls the early Marguerite Duras, "Kitchen" and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a very special writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grove Press
Publication date

April 17, 2006
Dimensions

5 x 0.5 x 7.2 inches
ISBN-10

0802142443
ISBN-13

978-0802142443
Lexile measure

710L
See all details

Frequently bought together

$12.39

Get it as soon as Thursday, Jul 27

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$11.29

Get it as soon as Thursday, Jul 27

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$13.39

Get it as soon as Thursday, Jul 27

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Choose items to buy together.

Sayaka Murata
5,859
Paperback
74 offers from $5.64
Soseki Natsume
690
Paperback
78 offers from $7.56
Hiromi Kawakami
3,662
Paperback
56 offers from $4.91
Durian Sukegawa
2,965
Paperback
46 offers from $6.02
Yukio Mishima
681
Paperback
85 offers from $1.92
Cho Nam-joo
6,665
Paperback
59 offers from $7.48

From the Publisher


	LIZARD	HARDBOILED & HARD LUCK	AMRITA	NP	GOODBYE TSUGUMI
	“Banana Yoshimoto is a clear genius.”—San Francisco Chronicle	“Taken together, these two novellas form a sparkling book.” –Washington Post	“Yoshimoto shouldn’t be shy about basking in her celebrity. Her achievements are already legend.” —Boston Globe	“[An] ethereally mesmerizing . . . novel of Japan’s Generation X.” —Chicago Sun-Times	“A rollicking good read.” –O Magazine

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ms. Yoshimoto’s writing is lucid, earnest and disarming . . . [It] seizes hold of the reader’s sympathy and refuses to let go.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Banana Yoshimoto is a master storyteller. . . . The sensuality is subtle, masked, and extraordinarily powerful. The language is deceptively simple.” —Chicago Tribune

“Yoshimoto shouldn’t be shy about basking in her celebrity. Her achievements are already legend.”—The Boston Globe

“A meditation on the transience of beauty and love…Melancholy and lovely.” –The Washington Post Book World

From the Back Cover

A scathing comedy of social striving in the suburbs, Absurd Person Singular follows the fortunes of three couples who turn up in each other's kitchens on three successive Christmases, to hilarious and devastating effect.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; 1st Black cat ed edition (April 17, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802142443
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802142443
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 710L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.5 x 7.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #25,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #307 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #701 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #2,519 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 2,061 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Banana Yoshimoto

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

2,061 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Paul F.

In the end a fairytale .. but why?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

I was disappointed to find a simplistic fairytale rounding up of an otherwise very well told story which was all of itself quite well constrained...until it wasn't anymore.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2009

Verified Purchase

Mikage Sakurai has had an uncertain childhood, losing both her parents while she was very young and being raised by her grandparents. Her grandfather, too, died when she was entering junior high. A few years later her grandmother dies leaving her alone, without any family.

As Mikage is contemplating what to do next, Yuichi Tanabe, a classmate who helped out at her grandmother's funeral, visits her. He invites Mikage to come stay with him and his "mother." Yuichi's mother Eriko turns out to be a transgendered former male (Yuichi's father). She works in a nightclub. With no particular plan or direction, Mikage decides to take up the offer and spends long days alone contemplating the ceiling while Yuichi is at class and Eriko away at work or sleeping.

Mikage adjusts to life at the Tanabe's and comes to value the friendship of these odd, nonconforming Japanese. Yuichi is moody and depressive, a needy soul who becomes deeply attached to Mikage's friendship. Eriko's style is high camp. She loves making frivolous purchases, especially electronic gadgets. Eriko loves Mikage with a kind of offbeat quasi-maternal affection. The household is shocked when Eriko is killed, murdered at the nightclub where she works.

While she is staying at the Tanabe's Mikage purchases a set of instruction books on cooking and immerses herself in a serious attempt to become a skilled cook. After Eriko's death, when she comes back to the Tanabe apartment and spends a few days with Yuichi, she prepares an enormous meal of numerous courses, which they devour over several hours.

Not long after Eriko's death, Mikage finds a dream job as an assistant to a well-known culinary author and television personality. She is asked to accompany the sensei and other staff on a trip to Izu Peninsula to sample the local cuisine. Mikage jumps at the chance.

Mikage leaves for Izu, but once there she phones Yuichi who has gone to an inn not far from Izu to be alone. He complains about the food at the inn, which consists entirely of tofu dishes. Mikage happens on a katsudon shop where the specialty is exquisitely prepared. On an impulse, she orders an extra portion to go, hails a cab and makes a lengthy trip to Yuichi's inn. He is surprised, eats the katsudon and declares it to be the best he has every tasted. Before she leaves to ride the waiting cab back to Izu, Mikage tells him obliquely that she would like their relationship to grow and deepen.

When she returns, Mikage receives a phone call from Yuichi who has gone to great pains to find out where she is staying. He asks her for her time of return to Tokyo and the platform where her train will arrive, promising to meet her. On this upbeat, optimistic note the story closes.

Kitchen is a GenX novel, its youthful characters severed from traditional relationships: family, marriage, career. In their place, they form deep, if not necessarily permanent, bonds of friendship, based on mutual help and acceptance between people struggling to get by in a fragmented world.

The kitchen serves as a symbol of peace and comfort, a place where Mikage can forget the difficulties that she faces and lose herself in her artistic creation. It also brings together the disparate personalities in a union based on shared enjoyment of food. Banana Yoshimoto handles this with great warmth and sensitivity. Her short debut novel makes for a touching, uplifting read.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Miranda

Kitchen

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

Interesting book exploring the themes of loss and family. I thought it was ok i didn’t really connect with it.

Helpful

Julie M Duane

a balm for the wounded

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

A beautifully poignant and dreamy read about grief and loss. This book is a healing presence for anyone struggling with anything, from their own personal losses to feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Helpful

Shazi L

If you have ever seen the beauty in melancholy, read this.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

What beautiful and haunting language surrounding themes of grief, loneliness, isolation, time, and moving on. This was a pretty unique read, but it feels like it touched my soul.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was really drawn in by both these stories. The characters feel very real, and she created an experience of the main character's world that wasn't at all sensational - but I remember scenes from it vividly. I empathised with Mikage and the other characters because the author wrote in such a multi-faceted way.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

A beautiful portrayal of grief

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

I've seen some reviews that say the book seems childish, but I have to disagree. Simplicity can be exactly right and I think in this situation it worked perfectly. Yoshimoto creates a story filled with beautiful metaphors and musings on life after you lose someone close to you. This version actually includes two stories, not one, the first of which is called "Kitchen."

"Kitchen" follows a young woman after the death of her grandmother as she tries to find happiness and direction again. The writing is simple and at times short, but it seems fitting to someone who is grieving and gave the narrator an even stronger voice. I found the narrators love of kitchens especially charming and real. The thoughts and actions of the characters seemed so relatable and normal, like things I would do and say in the same situation.

I found the second story "Moonlight Shadow" to be even more touching and graceful. I underlined a good portion of the end, saving it up for my own purposes because the writing was that striking. In this story, Yoshimoto writes about a girl who has lost her boyfriend and thinks back on their memories as she tries to keep living.

I'd highly recommend this book. It was an easy read, done in a day, but the content was enough to keep me thinking far longer than that.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

DJG

Dreams of Love

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

Banana Yoshimoto has written an evocative, dreamlike exploration of love, loss, suffering, hope and renewal, using food preparation in kitchens as a fundamental metaphor, set in several Japanese locations, including Tokyo, but in the end, both encompassing and transcending cultural and physical environments.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

James Bispo

pequeno, frágil e charmoso

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on January 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

não darei uma avaliação completa, pois ainda não terminei de ler. mas vale a pena comprar, tem sido um livro incrível até a página 56 e creio que continuará sendo até a última.
- bruna

2 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

Esther

Libro para adolescentes aunque se supone que es de adultos

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on April 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

Libro para adolescentes aunque se supone que es para adultos

Translate review to English

Matteo Lettini

Una struggente storia d'amore

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on March 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

Bellissimo romanzo di Banana Yoshimoto, narra di una ragazza giapponese e della elaborazione del lutto e di transgender. Ordinatolo in inglese, adesso che mi è arrivato, l'ho praticamente già letto in poche ore (veramente "ascoltato") scaricandolo come file mp4 da internet in italiano. Quindi mi divertirò a rileggerlo in inglese. In edizione tascabile ottimo come compagno di viaggio e di riflessione sul senso della vita. Ciao.

Translate review to English

Amazon Customer

Bom livro

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on April 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Ótimo livro

Translate review to English

Francesco D'Amico

Kitchen

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on September 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

I loved this book, because it is one of those books that fill your heart and keep you company.
You get affectionate to the characters extremely fast as their personal traits are finely thought out, making you really feel their emotions. It is very well written, giving it a flow, so that sometimes you just can’t stop reading!

See more reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Kitchen Paperback – April 17, 2006

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

More items to explore

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

Product details

Videos for this product

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Important information

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Prime includes:

Buy new: $12.39$12.39 FREE delivery: Thursday, July 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used: $7.98

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Kitchen Paperback – April 17, 2006

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

More items to explore

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

Product details

Videos

Videos for this product

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Important information

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$12.39

FREE delivery: Thursday, July 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon.com

Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used:

$7.98