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Heaven
Mieko Kawakami
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Description for Heaven
Paperback.
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a fourteen-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying.
In Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the ... Read moretwo young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror?
Unflinching yet tender, sharply observed, intimate and multi-layered, this simple yet profound novel stands as yet another dazzling testament to Mieko Kawakami’s uncontainable talent.
TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of the Year
'Mieko Kawakami is a genius' - Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times
'An expertly told, deeply unsettling tale of adolescent violence' - Vogue
Translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
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Product Details
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
About Mieko Kawakami
Mieko Kawakami is the author of the internationally bestselling novel Breasts and Eggs, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of TIME’s Best 10 Books of the Year, and the highly acclaimed Heaven, her second novel to be translated and published in English, which Oprah Daily described as written ‘with jagged, visceral beauty’. Born in Osaka, ... Read moreJapan, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and in 2007 published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World. Known for their poetic qualities, their insights into the female body, and their preoccupation with ethics and modern society, her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Kawakami’s literary awards include the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. She lives in Tokyo, Japan. Show Less
Reviews for Heaven
Taking two outcast teens as its unhappy protagonists, it is an expertly told, deeply unsettling tale of adolescent violence that will, no doubt, only grow the author's fan base
Vogue
This is the real magic of Heaven, which shows us how to think about morality as an ongoing, dramatic activity.
Merve Emre
New Yorker
To ... Read moreread Heaven, by the author of Breasts and Eggs, and newly translated into English from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd, is to bear witness to an unrelenting horror film of one boy’s youth
The Washington Post
The second novel to appear in English by the bestselling Japanese author Mieko Kawakami is tauter and even more perceptive than its predecessor . . . Heaven is less than half the length and holds double the emotional force
New Statesman
For me this is a perfect novel, and one I know I will return to before long
Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation Heaven is a thoughtful novel about the value of the flaws that make us who we are
Literary Review
Short but assured. . .by the end, the reader is so dizzily absorbed in its visceral details and philosophical complexity that, when the twist comes, it hits you with a strange and unexpected force
Financial Times
Impeccably translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd, the book is full of masterly set pieces of violence, scenes of senseless bullying so lucid you can almost feel the pain yourself . . .
New York Times Book Review
Heaven is told with astonishing frankness and economy. It will cut through all your defences down to every layer of fear, isolation, hope and need you’ve ever felt . . . Mieko Kawakami is a genius
Naoise Dolan A raw, painful, and tender portrait of adolescent misery, reminiscent of both Elena Ferrante's fiction . . . I cannot, in good conscience, endorse it without a warning: This book is very likely to make you cry
NPR
Brilliant . . . This captivating, quietly devastating book is about the relationship between two school misfits. The same vulnerabilities that expose them to their tormentors allow them to see one another with a pure sort of attention
Megan Nolan
New Statesman
In this horror film, oblivious authority figures walk on by as you grope for breath, wondering what it even means to be alive and free
Independent
Simple and profound, Heaven is an undeniable masterpiece
Mitsuyoshi Numano A poignant odyssey into the haunted caverns of adolescence . . . Kawakami writes with jagged, visceral beauty about those early antagonists we carry around in our heads, scars we bear into adulthood, ‘caught in the undertow’ of hormones and sorrow
Oprah Daily
Mieko Kawakami pulls from the all too familiar places we learn to accept as normal in our youth and gives them to us to reflect on as adults in a painful yet necessary way. Even if we could never learn the absolute truths behind humans' capacity for violence as well as empathy, we are certainly closer now with Heaven
An Yu, author of Braised Pork Kawakami unflinchingly takes the reader through the abyss of depraved, dehumanizing behavior with keen psychological insight, brilliant sensitivity, and compassionate understanding. With this, the author’s star continues to rise
Publishers Weekly
Mieko Kawakami has spun a poignant tale on the theme of bullying . . . Heaven is a tour de force
Tokyo Shimbun
Heaven covers new terrain, masterfully broadening the literary landscape
Yomiuri Shimbun
Kawakami has a unique knack for burrowing into discomfort, and she does it in a startlingly graceful way. Like her last novel—an unsparing treatise on the pressures of being a woman in male-dominated Japan—this book isn’t for the fainthearted. Told from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy in present-day Japan, Kawakami’s tale follows the volatile lives of two teenagers relentlessly bullied by their peers . . . An unexpected classic
Kirkus
Rises above the philosophical questions at its depths and delivers the reader to a devastating conclusion
Elle Japan
Kawakami’s powerful and unassuming novel explores horrific accounts of bullying in a Japanese school . . . Her sensitive, evocative storytelling sets her apart as an incredible literary talent
BookList
Kawakami is a writer who doesn’t shy away from hard truths and painful experiences, so Heaven will not be an easy read, but it’s guaranteed to be a rewarding one
The Japan Times
It is difficult to write young voices well: easy to forget how smart teenagers are, or to portray them in terms of what adults might wish for them. Mieko Kawakami, however, is adept at understanding their perspective and capturing the despair and intractability of those difficult years . . . As with Kawakami's previously translated work, Breasts and Eggs, this is an adroit novel of real feeling and insight from a writer who wants her readers to think for themselves
Rónán Hession
Irish Times
Mesmerizing . . . Kawakami is a master of the interior voice. There is something about her prose that is so immediate and pressing it blocks out the future almost as if it were a threatening force. We are forced to deal with her characters as they are living now: alone, vulnerable, and unprotected
World Literature Today
These raw and realistic portrayals of bullying are counterbalanced by textured exposition of the philosophical and religious debates concerning violence to which the weak are subjected
Paperback Paris
Moving and intelligent. Kawakami gives us characters who speak to the heart and illustrate in one form or another the dilemma facing everyone in adolescence. Hopeful yet chilling in equal measures
American Booksellers Association
Heaven takes on the issue of bullying, and why a victim might choose not to fight back. Two teenagers bond over their torment, and their passive response reveals many kinds of societal injustice
Washington Post
This sharp new novel from Mieko Kawakami [is] a sucker-punch of a story that implores you to question even your own morality
Cosmopolitan
With grace and clarity, Kawakami explores destructive nature of adolescent violence, and the power of empathetic friendships
The Millions
How can a relationship really last when its foundation is built on shared experiences of humiliation? The author moves toward an answer in this quietly devastating tale of middle school drama
TIME
If you enjoyed Mieko Kawakami’s brilliant Breasts and Eggs, you’re certain to be astonished by her latest novel exploring violence and bullying with fierce, feminist and damning candor
Ms. Magazine
While Kawakami refuses to give us answers, the elegance and care with which she describes her characters’ lives invite the reader to ask such questions of themselves. This is not a cruel story, but rather one that understands hurt and pain for what it is: universal, unjust and material for new life
BookPage
Mieko Kawakami is the reigning queen of contemporary Japanese literature for good reason
Japan Times
Kawakami is taking the reader by the hand and guiding us through someone’s small, interior life as a method of contemplating wide-ranging, universal issues such as the body, ethics, and meaning
Bad Form Review
A poignant and unsettling look at what makes a friendship and, on a macro level, what makes an unequal society. Kawakami’s writing is meticulous and assured, and Heaven leaves a bruise
The Skinny
Exceptional
David Hayden
White Review 'Books of the Year'
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