The Premonition

The deeply moving new novel from the beloved, internationally bestselling author of Kitchen.

I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide . . . It was the beginning of summer, and I was nineteen years old.

Yayoi lives with her perfect, loving family - something 'like you'd see in a Spielberg movie'. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood, she is increasingly haunted by the sense that she's forgotten something important about her past.

Review

Fans of Kitchen, will delight in Asa Yoneda's translation of The Premonition . . . Yoshimoto bucks beautifully against convention. ― The New York Times Book Review

Casts a delicate spell . . . In a creative landscape that is increasingly homogenised by an Anglo-American style, it's refreshing to pick up literature that has not lost its thisness. The world that blossoms from Yoshimoto's text is unequivocally Japanese. ― Spectator

Polished, concise, emotionally rewarding. ― Daily Mail

Yoshimoto's novels are like jewel boxes. ― Vanity Fair

A timely invitation to explore her unusual, alluring world. ― Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Banana Yoshimoto is the prize-winning and internationally bestselling author of Kitchen, N.P., Lizard, Amrita, Asleep and Goodbye Tsugumi. She has published ten books in English translation and her work has been translated and published 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.