Available in English for the very first time a powerful poignant novel about three half
sisters in post-war Japan from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow Country. With the Second
World War only a few years in the past and Japan still reeling from its effects two
sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle to make sense of the new world
in which they are coming of age. Asako the younger has become obsessed with locating a third
sibling while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko their father’s first
child—haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final disturbing days
together—seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves
unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful probing novel about the
enduring traumas of war the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past
The Rainbow is a searing melancholy work from one of Japan’s greatest writers. A VINTAGE
ORIGINAL.
