I really enjoyed this book! I don't read much translated fiction but I'm really happy to have dipped my toe into the world of translated literature.

Banana Yoshimoto proves again that her literary style is unmatched. Dead-End Memories is a collection of short stories that focus on women in seemingly everyday life situations, but that Yoshimoto elevates by using an eerie, magical realism touch that gives her work a strange, dreamlike quality. The prose is simple but Yoshimoto has an amazing ability to create such a reflective, melancholic atmosphere that reading these stories feels a bit like meditating. My favorite story and the one that stuck in my memory the most is one about a woman who meets the ghosts of an elderly couple in her lover’s apartment - and I think this describes perfectly what Yoshimoto writes about: love and heartbreak, sorrow, but also hope and strength. It’s a fantastic, beautiful collection, and I highly recommend giving it a chance if you’re not familiar with Yoshimoto’s books.

Banana Yoshimoto's short story collection Dead-End Memories was a calm, rewarding read. Perfect for the lazy summer months.

The first story, House of Ghosts, is my favourite. The characters are warm and inviting. Me too I want to cook in a family restaurant!

It is a very charming story, lyrical in it's simplicity. It teaches us that one can find poetry in daily habits. This is shown when the ghosts show themselves to our narrator for the first time. An elderly couple, they go about their morning routine, making tea and stretching to the radio exercise segment, unphased by death. Life flows softly on. I deeply connected to this story, and would have read another 200 pages.

Thank you to Banana Yoshimoto, Netgalley, and Counterpoint for the galley.

**Thank you for the ARC. All opinions are fully my own.**

3.5 stars. Dreamy, nostalgic, but unfinished.

Banana Yoshimoto is back again with another collection of short stories. The stories are centered around tragedy, love, and loss, with a touch of light and warmth. The characters confront their fears and hopes, but are still able to find comfort in the face of solitude, loneliness, and alienation.

However, as opposed to Banana Yoshimoto’s previous collections, these stories miss the mark somehow. As a result of translation and/or poor plot direction, most of the stories were jarring to read and ended abruptly.

TLDR; Ehh.

Dead-End memories is a short story collection following five different women and each story revolves around a particular moment in their lives that has caused them pain and trauma. The stories are sad, but not depressing. It doesn't focus on the details of the pain they encountered. Rather, it explores the way each of them grieves, heals, overcomes and finds joy in the everyday moments of life again.

There is something so special in the way Yoshimoto writes. Each story is written in a straightforward manner and while there is a subtle melancholy feeling you can't help but feel when reading each story; there is also the feeling of comfort and gentleness infused with hope. I love how Yoshimoto focuses on the small details, the simplicities in life that we tend to overlook, and the beauty in the mundane. I could see each story becoming its own full-length novel, focusing on each of these 5 women and their stories.

This was my first time reading Banana Yoshimoto's work, and now I just want to read her entire backlist of books!

This is the first work of Yoshimoto's that I have read. I wasn't sure that I'd like it as some of the women writers coming out of Japan these days are so bizarre. But Yoshimoto strikes a good note here and almost seems quaint in comparison. The translation is a little awkward and as a reader of Japanese, I might want to try them out in Japanese to see if the translation is awkward or if that is the writer's style. But the stories themselves are interesting and though somewhat stream of conscious-y, still complete stories. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in contemporary Japanese fiction as an excellent counterpoint to other authors recently translated.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of these short stories.

I've been reading all Japanese literature this year, and Banana Yoshimoto is one of my favorite newly-discovered authors. I was excited to see a new book from her, so soon after her last (The Lake) as she had quite a big gap between published works before then.

Banana Yoshimoto works her magic yet again in Dead-End Memories. Her prose never wavers in its quiet beauty.

While the stories are not interconnected, they each showcase different ordeals and how the five women handle their circumstances. Rather than focusing on the details of what happens to them, Yoshimoto explores their inner lives, thoughts, and emotions, and grasping for recovery and healing.

And that, that is what I appreciate about Banana Yoshimoto’s works the most. She’s not a sensationalist. To her, the plot serves to progress the character, not the other way around. That’s how it should be, in my honest opinion. I’m much more interested in people and reading about how they navigate life circumstances, and how they change and grow through them. I love those kinds of stories.

There were certain things that fell short for me with this book. While skillfully written, none of the stories moved me to the same extent that Kitchen did (which is, perhaps, an unfair comparison). Only one of the five stories touched my cold little heart, but that one I truly loved.

Despite writing of tragedies, Yoshimoto weaves her tales with gentle sensitivity. They left me with melancholy, but a sadness infused with hope.

Yoshimoto's style impressed me in the past. I would love to read more of her work in English. She is more relatable than Mieko Kawakami. I find her storytelling charming here, and the prose is straightforward and easy to read.