However, Mizuki is bored in her life as the “perfect” Tokyo housewife, and she feels trapped in this city of expectations and pressure. I felt for Pom and his denial of his Mom's dementia, but, again, c'mon - he is a DOCTOR and should be more aware and in tune with someone exhibiting these dangerous behaviors (almost set the house on fire). The tension between them is palpable, and when Mitzuki meets Kiyoshi at a Tokyo Fashion Week Event, she knows that he will eventually be her lover. Funny, provocative, and startlingly honest, Fault Lines is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, who am I and how did I get here? When Andrea at Main Street Books said she'd loved this literary novel with echoes of Madame Bovary and a forty-ish female protagonist rethinking her whole life, I snapped it right up.

Although she situates these ideas in a very specific social context, Itami manages to make them universal. Still, what a visceral and poignant story this was, deftly capturing the essence of our human need for connection and meaning. Now, as the world struggles to recover, it’s tempting to blame what happened on just a few greedy bankers who took irrational risks and left the rest of us to foot the bill. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage.At just over 200 pages, the book can be polished off in a sitting, but it punches above its weight in its themes and the maturity with which it examines them, such as how love intertwines with or comes up against duty, and the feeling of having lost a part of oneself. Shrewd commentary on Japan's societal expectations of women - Washington Post You may also be interested in.

That is why when she meets restauranteur Kiyoshi by chance when she is working, she feels such an intense chemistry with him that suddenly she understands exactly what has been missing from her life. Her children are wonderful, her husband's career affords them a stunning apartment with a balcony, and she wants for nothing.In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship, and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. He traces the deepening fault lines in a world overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power global economic growth and stave off global downturns. This was a thoughtful, insightful and a very considered debut novel about love in its many different guises, and how it is such an important part of everyone’s lives.