Sisters in Yellow
Japan

Sisters in Yellow

by Mieko Kawakami

Identity & Belonging Literary Fiction Fiction 2026

Summary

Fifteen-year-old Hana Ito lives with her young mother in a cramped Tokyo apartment, struggling with poverty and the uncertainty of a life without security. In the late 1990s, when Japan is grappling with economic stagnation, the future seems particularly bleak for those born without privilege. Then Hana meets Kimiko Yoshikawa, an older woman whose confidence and warmth offer her a glimpse of another possible life. Together, they establish Lemon, a modest bar that becomes a refuge for Hana and a place where she begins to imagine a future beyond mere survival.

As the business grows, Hana forms relationships with other young women who, like her, are trying to find their footing in a world that offers them few choices. But financial desperation, dangerous acquaintances, and difficult moral compromises gradually threaten the fragile community they have built. Decades later, news of a shocking criminal case involving Kimiko forces Hana to revisit the past and confront the consequences of decisions she has spent years trying to forget.

Blending crime fiction with an intimate portrait of female relationships, Kawakami explores poverty, ambition, betrayal, and the ways women struggle to protect one another in an unequal society. The novel asks how far people will go to survive—and whether the bonds formed in desperate circumstances can withstand the weight of time and guilt.

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Country
Japan
Asia
About the author
Mieko Kawakami
Mieko Kawakami

Mieko Kawakami is an acclaimed Japanese novelist and poet, born in Osaka in 1976. She made her literary debut as a poet in 2006 before publishing her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, in 2007. Her writing is celebrated for its lyrical style, psychological depth, and unflinching exploration of gender, class, the female body, and the ethical questions shaping contemporary life. Kawakami achieved international recognition with Breasts and Eggs, an expanded version of her earlier novella that examines women’s bodies, motherhood, and economic inequality in modern Japan. The novel became an international bestseller and was named one of TIME magazine’s ten best books of 2020. Her other acclaimed works include Heaven, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022, and All the Lovers in the Night, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2023. Her literary honours include Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize, Tanizaki Prize, and Murasaki Shikibu Prize. Sisters in Yellow won the Yomiuri Prize for Literature in 2024. Her work has been translated into more than forty languages, establishing her as one of the most influential contemporary voices in Japanese literature. She lives in Tokyo.

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Details
Published
2026
Author
Mieko Kawakami