Title: Sisters in Yellow
Author: Mieko Kawakami
Genre: Crime fiction
Publisher: Pan Macmillian/Picador
Cost: Rs 799

International Booker Prize shortlisted Japanese author Mieko Kawakami’s latest novel Sisters in Yellow (Pan Macmillan/Picador) is a journey into the nightlife of Tokyo from the eyes of the forty-year-old protagonist Hana. We learn about the time she was 15, and in a strained relationship with her mother, until taken in by Kimiko. Together, Kimiko and Hana ran a bar called Lemon, serving a host of colourful customers. Twenty years later, Kimiko is 60, and under arrest. Hana reflects on the time spent with her and two girls, Ran and Momoko.

Kawakami’s narrative is peppered with characters who grew up with little money and find themselves in questionable and dangerous situations in their quest to make ends meet. Accompanying characters have fascinating stories too. There’s Kotomi, an escort; Yeongsu, a Korean who surreptitiously hands white envelopes to Kimiko; Tommy-cat, a 30-something man who wants to write a book ‘as a high-school girl’; and Viv, the woman who gives Hana a job after Lemon shuts down, initiating her into the world of underhanded card schemes.