<i> Yayoi, a nineteen-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino. </i>

Days later and I’m still not sure what I read. I suspect some things were lost in translation- not just the translation of language itself, but also both time and culture. I was unsettled by the relationships depicted in this story, and it wasn’t clear whether or not that was intentional.

Kathleen Li did a fine job narrating the audiobook.

Thank you Banana Yoshimoto, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

A young woman starts feeling as though she’s missing important memories from childhood and goes to visit her mysterious aunt that she believes might hold some answers. Intriguing concept but the execution was a little underwhelming. There’s a specific relationship dynamic in this book that I don’t like reading about, so maybe it’s a me thing.

After reading the summary I couldn’t wait to get into this book unfortunately I listened for 2 1/2 hours and couldn’t get into the book her melancholy and angst although interesting Edney zoning out and thinking about things as the audio played. I am not saying this is a bad but what I’m saying is it just isn’t for me the narrator sounded as if she herself wasn’t into reading the book because she to soundboard and maybe that was the problem I’m going to buy the Kindle book and see if it plays better that way. I want to thank the author the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy.

This was my first book by this author though I have been encouraged to read her works in the past — I am so glad I finally tried her out. I will definitely be reading more of this author’s novels. This story follows the protagonist of the story Yayoi — as she rediscovers herself, her past, her family and her love. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrator did a great job with all the voices and bringing out the emotion of the characters. This book explores heavy themes and one of them is the cultural differences in what kinds of LOVE are socially acceptable in Japan- though non-Japanese may read this book and label it with the theme of incest — that is not the case— marrying an adopted sibling or adopting your son/daughter-in-law into your family is not taboo. The writing is beautiful with wonderful descriptions allowing the reader to visualize easily the characters/environment etc — The translator did a great job of making the prose conversational and realistic.

This was a really heartfelt and intriguing dreamlike read.

Yayoi leaves home at 19, plagues with this incessant feeling that she has forgotten something really important about her childhood. She turns to an eccentric aunt, a woman she was never particularly close with, but always felt a strong kinship with.

Yukino is messy and has her own way of going about life. And Yayoi hopes that she can help her figure out what she has been suppressing for so long.

This is a book about hope and family. I found the ending to be something I wasn’t quite expecting, but incredibly compelling. I loved the writing and want to see if Banana Yoshimoto has more translated works!!

📚It has been decades since I first read and fell in love with Banana Yoshimoto's works. I was so excited to see that another of her novels had been translated into English. But perhaps it is because I'm now twenty years older, or maybe because the protagonist in this story is nineteen years old, but Premonition read like a YA novel to me and didn't hit home. I've always enjoyed Yoshimoto's brand of magical realism, and I liked the bits of that she included in Premonition, but the storyline didn't pull me in like I'd hoped.

🩺In Premonition, the main character's parents die in a car crash, while she and her sister, both sitting in the back seat, survive. 1.3 million deaths a year worldwide are due to traffic accidents. Passengers in the back seat are about 40% more likely to survive a crash than those on the front.

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for the early opportunity to listen and to review the audioversion of this book.

I’m glad Belletrist picked this as their November Bookclub pick. With hopes of adding more novellas and translated fiction to my tbr this checked off both of those boxes.

I listen to the audio for this which took about an hour of my day… I do feel like I would take more from the book reading it physically and happy I have a copy to revisit.

This is my first book by Banana Yoshimoto and I’m intrigued to pick up more. Throughout Yanoi’s story I just had this since of unease as she senses there are moments from her childhood she doesn’t remember and is called to visit her Aunt…

Though the story I need to revisit for more clarity what I loved what Yoshimoto’s description of place… you get a quick glimpse a just a few characters and overall it felt very dream like.

This was slower than I would have liked, unfortunately, and I didn't find myself drawn into any of the characters. It took me about 40% of the way in to get engaged, but then by 80% of the way in I wasn't engaged anymore.

There was also a very unsavory relationship depicted in the book, that was generally just accepted. I think the genders of the individuals made it seem acceptable and this book is from a different time (and culture) but it still gave me the icks.

Thanks, NetGalley and Counterpoint, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.