Gifted

A moving portrayal of a troubled mother-daughter relationship, shortlisted for Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize. In 2008, the unnamed narrator of Gifted is working as a hostess and living in Tokyo's nightlife district. One day, her estranged mother, who is seriously ill, suddenly turns up at her door. As the mother approaches the end of her life, the two women must navigate their strained relationship, while the narrator also reckons with events happening in her own life, including the death of a close friend - all under the bright lights of Tokyo's 'sleepless town', Kabukicho. In sharp, elegant prose, and based on the author's own experiences as a sex worker, Gifted heralds the breakthrough of an exciting new literary talent.

About the author

Suzumi Suzuki is an acclaimed Japanese sociologist and columnist. She graduated from Keio University majoring in Environment and Information Studies, and later received a master’s degree from Tokyo University. She worked as an adult video actress before becoming a journalist for Nikkei Inc. She is also the author of Sell Your Body, and It’s Goodbye (2016), Flowers for Love and the Womb (2017), A Prostitute’s Bookshelf (2022), and Letters of Correspondence (2021), co-written with Japan’s most acclaimed feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno. Gifted is her debut novel.

Allison Markin Powell is a literary translator, editor, and publishing consultant. She received the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Her other translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa. 

Product details

• Authors: Suzumi Suzuki
• Assisted by: Allison Markin Powell (Translation), Powell Allison Markin (Translation)
• Publisher: Faber Factory Plus GBS
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 01.10.2024
• EAN: 9781915590787
• ISBN: 978-1-915590-78-7
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); Japan, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy, FICTION / Psychological, Fiction in translation, Narrative theme: Interior life, Family life fiction, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Health and illness