The Rainbow

A Novel

De: Yasunari Kawabata

Narrado por: Ami Okumura Jones

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.

©2023 Yasunari Kawabata (P)2023 Random House Audio

Left hanging

I loved the setting of the story and the voice and accent of the narrator.
I disliked that the story ended so abruptly, and that the narrator stresses the wrong words in the sentence. It sounds as if she didn’t prepare for the recording.
I give it a 7. But I enjoyed it too..