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Breasts and Eggs

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Breasts and Eggs

By: Mieko Kawakami
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
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About this listen

On a hot summer’s day in a poor suburb of Tokyo we meet three women: 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s teenage daughter, Midoriko. Makiko, an ageing hostess despairing the loss of her looks, has travelled to Tokyo in search of breast-enhancement surgery. She's accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently stopped speaking, finding herself unable to deal with her own changing body and her mother’s self-obsession. Her silence dominates Natsu’s rundown apartment, providing a catalyst for each woman to grapple with their own anxieties and their relationships with one another.

Ten years later, we meet Natsu again. She is now a writer and finds herself on a journey back to her native city, returning to memories of that summer and her family’s past as she faces her own uncertain future.

In Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami paints a radical and intimate portrait of contemporary working-class womanhood in Japan, recounting the heartbreaking journeys of three women in a society where the odds are stacked against them. This is an unforgettable full-length English-language debut from a major new international talent.

©2020 Mieko Kawakami (P)2020 W F Howes Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Breathtaking." (Haruki Murakami, international best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle)
All stars
Most relevant  
I adore the style of the book - dry and descriptive of well observed workings of the mind - also so much a story about a he experience of becoming in a woman’s body

Captivating

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This book was the most magical, enlightening and calming books I have come across. There was nothing dramatic or tense about it. I’ve loved it for its soothing tone and mundane details. How she described the appearance of her day while mentioning the people she’d met or walked by. If I could start again as if it would be my first read I would without a doubt start. I hope every women get the opportunity to feel the warmth of this story and Natuso life would touch them the way it did me. Thank you for writing and Thank you so very much for allowing me and everyone else the pleasure of reading it in English. RM

I didn’t want it to end. I would saver it, bit by bit so I could hold it for longer!

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Struggled to finish... Found it to be pretty uneventful fluff. Definitely worked at putting me back to sleep after feeding the baby

Nothingness

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There were two separate parts to the story and I think the first part was stronger and more gripping.

Partially good

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Exceptional, nuanced and insightful. I'm so glad this book was translated to English. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Japanese literature or those with a general interest in Japanese culture.
すごく感動しました。

Impactful

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My friend told me to read this saying it will make me not want to have kids and will change my perspective. But wow has it invigorated me to have a baby, the pain, suffering and the unknown is all worth it. That’s life. And there is no greater bond then a mother and her child. Nothing stronger than that pure unknown and the unconditional love

Wow

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The first part of this novel was excellent and very interesting. I genuinely didn’t want it to end and was excited for the second book. The second part however was extremely slow and drawn out, I really struggled to get through it, it definitely felt more like a chore than anything actually enjoyable.

First book was really good

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This books is boring and the stories change from nothing, there is no start, no middle no good end.
The whole interaction is cold, start with no reason and it finished from nowhere. I did not like it.

Too boring

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A variety of themes with no real storyline coupled with a very poor reading performance. The dryness of the narrator was so overpowering I found myself getting frustrated at them as my main focus. Silly ending given the lead up and just a waste of listening time.

Much of nothing

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