SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
"What is the cost of a mother's desire?...Emily Itami explores this
question with wit and poignancy." -- New York Times Book Review
"The perfect marriage of Sally Rooney and early Murakami." -- Kathy
Wang, author of Impostor Syndrome
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two
adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It's everything a
woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather
throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not
talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.
Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In
him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship, and the neon, electric pulse
of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their
relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives--and
in the end, we can choose only one.
Funny, provocative, and startlingly honest, Fault Lines is for anyone
who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, who am I and how did I get
here? A bittersweet love story and a piercing portrait of female
identity, it introduces Emily Itami as a debut novelist with astounding
resonance and wit.
