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Rising star Mieko Kawakami reaches new heights in this pacy, thrilling novel, a Japanese All of them are fleeing something. Growing up without a father, Hana’s tired of the pity in her classmates’ eyes, and;finds a flashier mother figure;in Kimiko. Kimiko is older than Hana''s mother but seems much younger, chatting easily about school and boys and wanting a better life.;Fate throws them together with two more young women--bruised but not broken by life. Together the four set out to remake their;lives, fighting predatory lenders, organized criminals, and plain bad luck as they open a bar called Lemon.; Keeping the business going, and trying to take care of each other, forms the core of this enrapturing novel. It is a story of startling reversals and vivid portraits of the matriarchy of Tokyo nightlife and its adjacent criminal underclasses. From the bar owners to the aging hostesses to the young street touts coaxing people off the street to places like Lemon, everyone wants a chance at renewal, but can everyone get it?; Narrated by Hana in Kawakami’s trademark evocatively poetic style and paced like a noir,
