Goodbye Tsugumi

“Bittersweet . . . buoyant . . . [Yoshimoto] shines like few contemporaries when writing about the sea.” –Anuj Desai, Black Book

“A vital portrait of a complicated friendship.” –Troy Patterson, Entertainment Weekly

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Banana Yoshimoto's novels of young life in Japan have made her an international sensation. Goodbye Tsugumi is an offbeat story of a deep & complicated friendship between two female cousins that ranks among her best work.

Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled, & occasionally cruel. Now Maria's father is finally able to bring Maria & her mother to Tokyo, ushering Maria into a world of university, impending adulthood, & a "normal" family.

When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love & Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi's inner strength & the real possibility of losing her. 

Goodbye Tsugumi is a beguiling, resonant novel from one of the world's finest young writers.

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BANANA YOSHIMOTO wrote her first novel, Kitchen, while working as a waitress at a golf-course restaurant. It sold millions of copies worldwide, & led to a phenomenon dubbed by Western journalists as “Banana mania.” Yoshimoto has gone on to be one of the biggest-selling & most distinguished writers in Japanese history, winning numerous awards for her work. The Lake is her thirteenth book of fiction.

Michael Emmerich is the translator of many books by Japanese authors. He holds a PhD in Japanese Literature from Columbia university & was a Costen Postoctoral Fellow at Princeton University.