Sisters in Yellow

De: Mieko Kawakami

From the International Booker Prize Shortlisted author of Heaven and Breasts and Eggs

Hana has nothing but she’s hopeful. She’s fifteen years old. She lives in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar. They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears.

Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana’s dark world. Together they set up Lemon, a bar that caters to hostesses and their marks, small-time crooks, men with low morals and deep pockets, and anyone down on their luck. Suddenly Hana has a job she loves, friends to share her days with, and the glittering promise of money. She feels like a normal girl. She feels invincible.

But in the seedy streets of Setagaya, nothing is as it seems. Soon all of Hana’s hope, her optimism, and her drive, will be tested to the limt . . .

Twenty years later, Kimiko is on trial. Now Hana must wrestle with her own actions, and face their devastating consequences.

A story of enduring friendship and deep betrayal, Sisters in Yellow is a masterpiece of teenage dreams and adult cruelties that confirms Mieko Kawakami as one of the great writers of her generation.

©2026 Mieko Kawakami (P)2026 Macmillan Publishers International Limited