Before doing that, I decided to first dip my toe into her world with the novella Ms Ice Sandwich: available from Pushkin Press and translated by Louise Heal Kawai. My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Pushkin Press.Like many of you who are joining in with Women in Translation Month, I am keen to read Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. It is a thought provoking, satisfying read.

The story touches on universal attitudes, the desire to belong, and the difficulties of conveying what is deeply felt. Although emotive it is never sentimental. Tutti offers him a place in her world, which he is grateful for even if he cannot match her enthusiasm for her interests.Ī deftly written, unusual tale of the changes life inevitably brings. The boy does not wish to be laughed at, to have his feelings mocked. What matters to an individual is put at risk when its importance is shared with someone else. When Tutti finds out how he feels she is saddened but advises him to act.Įach of these characters has family and friends yet are portrayed as isolated. The boy would like to tell Tutti about Ms Ice Sandwich, especially when other classmates make derogatory comments about her looks. She has invited the boy to join them one evening to share a favourite film although a date has yet to be agreed. The boy has a school friend, Tutti, who enthuses about the foreign movies she watches with her dad. Peers have their own obsessions, the reasons for which are rarely understood or appreciated. The boy’s mother is too distracted by her work to converse about more than daily essentials. Grandma is a good listener as she lies in her bed, unable to interact, waiting to die.

He tells his grandmother all about her and draws pictures of her face, painting in the ice-blue eyelids. When school resumes he cannot spend as much time watching the woman he has named in his head Ms Ice Sandwich. He saves his money that he may purchase the products she sells and thereby get close enough to speak. Over the course of a summer he visits the supermarket each day to watch as she slips sandwiches into bags and hands out change. He is fascinated by her attitude, the aloofness with which she treats her customers being so at odds with the typical obsequiousness of service industry employees in Japan.

He is drawn to her eyes, the lids of which are ice-blue. Ms Ice Sandwich, by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Louise Heal Kawai), is a short novel about a young boy’s infatuation with a woman he observes working behind the sandwich counter at a busy supermarket.

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami