Gifted
Gifted
Suzumi Suzuki
Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell.
In the last days of her mother’s life, a young woman living in Tokyo’s red-light district is thrust into a split existence. By day, she negotiates her new role as caregiver of an abusive parent. By night, she drifts home from the hospital, goes out with other sex-workers, thinks about quitting smoking, and numbly remembers Eri, a friend who died the summer before. Her sensitivity to the details of her surroundings grounds an otherwise unstable world, one where each interaction requires a subtle negotiation of economic and sexual power, and proximity rarely means intimacy or connection.
Drawing on her own experiences as a hostess and adult film actor, GIFTED—Suzumi Suzuki’s first novel to be translated into English—offers a nuanced, frank, and intimate portrayal of the lives of a mother and daughter getting by (or not) in an industry rarely depicted authentically in literary fiction.
SHIPS SEPTEMBER 10
Praise for GIFTED
“Demonstrates that death is the only way forward. Oozes with maternal cruelty.”—Yoko Ogawa
“There is a vigilance in her sentences. The author takes responsibility for every word.”—Shuichi Yoshida
“A gleaming pocket knife of a novel stabbing into the heart of maternal abuse, inherited trauma, and the cyclical nature of sex work.”—Mathuson Anthony, Book Club Bar (New York City, NY)
“Explores a fascinating Japanese subculture missing from the many translated novels we’ve seen recently from Japanese authors. That the novel and protagonist are based on the author’s own life gives Gifted an added layer of interest.”—Grace Sullivan, Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA)
Product Info
First Published: October 1, 2024
Fiction
Paperback | 5.25 x 8 | 108 Pages
Rights: NA
978-8-893389-00-5