Sisters in Yellow
by Mieko Kawakami
Translated by Laurel Taylor & Hitomi Yoshio
ARC Review
Pub date: March 17, 2026
Published By: Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf
What It’s About
Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow goes back to the Tokyo of the 1990s, to the kind of life that doesn’t show up in travel guides or nostalgia essays. Fifteen-year-old Hana lives with her mother in a rundown apartment. Her mother works as a hostess, barely getting by, and Hana is learning early how limited her choices really are.
Then she meets Kimiko, an older woman who takes her under her wing. Together they open Lemon, a tiny bar that becomes a refuge of sorts for them both. It’s not glamorous, but it’s something they can call their own. For Hana, that means hope. For Kimiko, it’s survival.
Kawakami doesn’t romanticize any of it. She takes readers into the back rooms, the scams, the hustles, and the small bursts of joy that make up these women’s lives. It’s about money, loyalty, and the thin line between sisterhood and survival.
What Stuck With Me
This is such a sad book. It’s the opposite of To the Moon in tone but not in spirit. Both are about women trying to survive, but Sisters in Yellow lives in a harsher, more fragile world. There’s no corporate office or clean escape, just women doing what they can with what they have.
Class is at the center of everything. Hana and the women around her live at the edge of poverty, but they still find ways to build a kind of family. The scenes where Hana learns the ropes of the business are difficult to read at times, but they also show how fast she has to grow up. Kawakami takes her time explaining the small tricks and grifts, but it works, because we’re learning with Hana too.
What I can’t shake is how much Hana wants to belong. She keeps trying to hold everyone together, even when it’s clear the center won’t hold. If she had been born into a different world, with different people around her, maybe she would have found another path. But she does what she can. She plays the hand she’s dealt.
Would I Recommend It
Yes, but it’s not an easy read. Sisters in Yellow is raw and emotionally heavy. It’s a coming-of-age story that doesn’t promise redemption, only endurance. Readers who liked Breasts and Eggs will recognize Kawakami’s focus on women’s inner worlds and social invisibility, but this one hits closer to the bone.
I’d recommend it to readers who appreciate stories that show survival without glamour, who don’t need hope to be tidy, and who want to see how women find connection even in the hardest places.
My takeaway: sometimes surviving is the only victory.
Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC of Sisters in Yellow.
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