Mikage Sakurai has lost her dearly beloved grandmother whom she had been living with, and she feels lost, alone and vulnerable. She’s now an orphan as there are no other relatives. The tide has gone out and she doesn’t know when or whether it will return. She knows she has to find a new apartment to live in but hesitates. So when a casual acquaintance, Yuichi Tanabe, who used to work part-time in her grandmother’s favourite flower shop, invites her to stay with him and his mother, Eriko, she agrees, especially when she sees the enormous sofa, which would be her bed, in the living room and finally the kitchen. She was a particular lover of kitchens. The more diversely we eat, the lower our risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and the more enhanced our immunity. This is a book you'll be reaching for time and again, because these recipes are a joy to eat and fuss free, and you can feel happy in the knowledge you'll be helping your body to stay healthy too. Even more interesting is how they behave once their husbands all return from jail. The most telling moments in the book are what they do once the men return to take everything they've earned.

With her gangster husband behind bars, Kath gets Raven and Angie, also wives with imprisoned gangster husbands, to collect the protection money. While most businesses simply cut off some money off the top, one of them run by Franky refuses to pay altogether. Kath applies what she has learned from her husband and puts the owner in the hospital. What she doesn't know is that Franky is the brother of a made man. This causes all sorts of complications. The sudden death of loved ones is a unifying aspect of both stories. They all find awkward support from each other, and one finds solace in kitchens and food, another in jogging (and the river that had divided them, been their meeting place, and was ultimately where they were separated for ever). Metaphors must be hard to translate, but this one is so mixed up, I grudgingly admire it: "The two of us, alone, were flowing down that river of light, suspended in the cosmic darkness, and were approaching a critical juncture." They continue to wear makeup and heels like they always have. Because they choose to. But they also step up and take control, because they choose to. They fight real bad guys, not the bad guys' wives.

Success!

Traditional housewives "had been taught, probably by caring parents, not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness". The Kitchen is a classic mobster story. It follows all of the standard tropes, pacing, and story structure. It just happens to follow three women running the show instead of three men. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to get around to reading The Kitchen. It's been a subtle suggestion for my reading list from a fair few people since it was published in 2015. That said, I'm very glad I didn't postpone it any longer. This was an incredibly enjoyable read. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto comprises of two stories. One is a novella (Kitchen) and the other is a short story (Moonlight Shadow). Both the stories center around two young women as protagonists and their perceptions of life and death. (Kitchen) being my favorite of the two so, I'll be talking about that one here. As a bonus it has an actual ending! Many comic books or graphic novels don't. It's a complaint I've made time and again. The Kitchen is a contained story and well worth a read.

There were glimpses of something deeper. When overtly self-analytical, I don't think they worked, but some were genuinely poignant and thought-provoking. Kitchen and its accompanying story Moonlight Shadow comprise the first novella by award winning Japanese novelist Banana Yoshimoto. Both stories are told through the eyes of young women grieving following the death of a loved one, and deal with how that death plays a profound role in relationships going forward. Told in straight forward prose leaving nothing to chance, Yoshimoto tells two elegant stories.It's a story about 3 ladies who take over running the family business for their mob(ish) husbands when the men get sent to the pokey. As criminals do... During the time that Mikage spends with Eriko and her son, Yuichi, the latter who appeared to be a quiet unassuming person, was slowly transformed into a soul-mate of Mikage which rather stunned her. She felt he knew her very soul. Eating well doesn't need to be dull food and deprivation - it should be eating a wonderfully varied, vibrant and exciting range of foods. In The Kitchen Prescription, gastroenterologist Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed draws on her love of good food and her expertise in gut health to create 101 recipes that are easy to make, incredibly delicious to eat and will effortlessly keep your gut and digestion in tip-top condition.