Japan's internationally celebrated storyteller returns with five stories of healing and hope. The stories explore five women who, following sudden and painful events, find solace in the blissful moments in everyday life. Beautiful, strange and melancholy stories of heartbreak, hope and trying to see beauty in the everyday.

''Poignant . . . deeply nostalgic.'' GLAMOUR ''Strange, melancholy and beautiful.'' BRANDON TAYLOR ''The supreme poet of solitude.'' SPECTATOR There was no past, no future, no words, nothing - just the light and the yellow and the scent of dry leaves in the sun. Japan''s internationally celebrated storyteller returns with five stories of healing and hope. Effortlessly beautiful, nostalgic and melancholy, the stories in Dead-End Memories explore the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, find solace in the blissful moments in everyday life. The daughter of a restaurant owner experiences a budding romance, accompanied by the ghosts of an elderly couple. After a scandalous near-death experience, an editor gains a new lease of life. A woman seeks refuge in the apartment above her uncle''s bar after being betrayed by her fiance. As Yoshimoto''s gentle, effortless prose reminds us, one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to see it.

Autorentext
Banana Yoshimoto is the prize-winning and internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction, including Kitchen, Goodbye Tsugumi and The Premonition. Her work has been translated in over thirty countries. She lives in Tokyo.Asa Yoneda was born in Osaka and studied language, literature, and translation at University of Oxford and SOAS University of London. She now lives in Bristol, U.K. In addition to Yukiko Motoya, she has translated works by Banana Yoshimoto, Aoko Matsuda, and Natsuko Kuroda.