Banana Yoshimoto, pen name of Japanese writer Mahoko Yoshimoto, is one of Japan's most popular authors. Banana was born in 1964 to a literary family. While pursuing a literature degree at Nihon University's Art College, she picked the pseudonym Banana to reflect her love of banana flowers and to remain androgynous. Her debut novel, Kitchen (1988), received widespread acclaim (it has since been printed more than 60 times in Japan alone). It was not published in English until 1993, after which Banana found fast fame in the United States. Her 12 novels and seven essay collections have sold more than six million copies.
The majority of Banana's books have not been translated into English, and many that have are now out of print. On September 18, Grove Press tallied three Banana reprints: Lizard ($16, 9780802124395), Amita (9780802124135) and N.P. (9780802124425). Lizard contains six short stories that blend traditional and popular Japanese culture into tales of young men and women struggling among modernity. In Amita, a woman with memory loss must cope with the recent death of her celebrity sister. N.P. also begins with a death--the suicide of a famous writer, who leaves behind a story, written in English, that he has forbidden being published in Japan. Perhaps, like her namesake, Banana is best enjoyed in bunches. --Tobias Mutter
