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 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 boys 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 <i>Acts of Desperation</i> 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 youve 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 <i>Braised Pork</i> Kawakami unflinchingly takes the reader through the abyss of depraved, dehumanizing behavior with keen psychological insight, brilliant sensitivity, and compassionate understanding. With this, the authors 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 novelan unsparing treatise on the pressures of being a woman in male-dominated Japanthis book isnt for the fainthearted. Told from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy in present-day Japan, Kawakamis tale follows the volatile lives of two teenagers relentlessly bullied by their peers . . . An unexpected classic * Kirkus * Rises above the philosophical ques

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 TIMEs 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, Japan, 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. Kawakamis literary awards include the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. She lives in Tokyo, Japan.