All the Lovers in the Night (Subete mayonaka no koibitotachi)
Mieko Kawakami, San Bett (translation), David Boyd (translation)Bestselling author of Breasts & Eggs Mieko Kawakami invites readers back into her immediately recognizable fictional world with this new, extraordinary novel & demonstrates yet again why she is one of today’s most uncategorizable, insightful, and talented novelists.
Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working & living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, & spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life & decides to do something about it.
As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface & her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale. All the Lovers in the Night is acute & insightful, entertaining and engaging; it will make readers laugh, & it will make them cry, but it will also remind them, as only the best books do, that sometimes the pain is worth it.
°°°Mieko Kawakami is the author of the international bestseller Breasts and Eggs, a 2020 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and the highly acclaimed Heaven, one of TIME’s Best Books of 2021. Born in Osaka, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, & in 2007 published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, & the World. Known for their poetic qualities, insights into the female body, & preoccupation with ethics and modern society, her books have been translated into over twenty languages & are available all over the world. Kawakami’s literary awards include the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, & the Murasaki Shikibu Prize. She lives in Tokyo.