Host Robin Young speaks with about her new novel 鈥�.鈥�
The book centers around three half-Japanese, half-British sisters who have returned to their childhood home in coastal Japan to deal with a family crisis.
Book excerpt: 鈥楰akigori Summer鈥�
By Emily Itami
When Kiki calls, with her usual impeccable timing, the ambient airport noises on my headphones are turned up full blast, and I only answer the phone in order to silence it. My boss, Llewellyn, has just told me I have three hours to put together a presentation that requires at least a week of prep. Llewellyn has spent our entire working relationship making wrong assumptions about me based on my Asian face, and I have never done anything to correct him. I definitely do not have time for a heart-to-heart with my sister.
Kiki starts talking with no preamble, but her words are lost, because the paralegal in the office opposite has just taken a personal call, and when I remove my headphones all I can hear is her announcing to somebody that Bloody Vagina has gone and done it again. From what I鈥檝e learnt from her calls, Vagina is her father鈥檚 newest wife. Meanwhile, Hikaru is talking over Kiki at her end, an insistent and rhythmic 鈥楳aMA, MaMA, MaMA鈥� that I don鈥檛 understand how Kiki can tune out. I have no idea why she can鈥檛 text me like a normal person. I go to close the door, and manage to drop the phone so it skitters across the corridor.
鈥楾urn on the news.鈥� The dictum floats up from the floor, the voice of a disembodied oracle.
I grab the phone before anyone hears anything else they don鈥檛 need to.
鈥榃hat do you mean turn on the news?鈥� I hiss, crouched down in front of one of the enormous flower arrangements that bloom incongruously across the office. 鈥業 live in London; I don鈥檛 have terrestrial television.鈥� Japan has twelve channels, and getting access to internet TV is like trying to break into the Pentagon. I think it鈥檚 a form of mind control.
鈥榃ell, go to the digital news outlet of your choice, then.鈥�
鈥業 have no digital news outlet of choice. The choice is liars or doomsayers so I鈥檝e stopped paying attention. What is it?鈥�
鈥業t鈥檚 Ai,鈥� Kiki says, and my stomach drops. I should have paid closer attention to the messages. 鈥楽he鈥檚 become a national disgrace and lost her job.鈥� I鈥檝e always admired that in Kiki 鈥� her ability to make all pieces of information sound equally neutral and matter-of-fact. I think the set lunch comes with a side salad. I think the person you were hoping to see is already dead. Sweet relief washes over me, followed quickly by irritation that my workday is being interrupted for someone who is still alive.
鈥楧on鈥檛 be over-dramatic.鈥�
鈥業鈥檓 not being over-dramatic. If you turned on the news you鈥檇 see.鈥�
鈥楩or f***鈥�* sake, Kiki.鈥� I look up to see one of the banking interns walking past, clutching coffees. 鈥楿nless she鈥檚 orchestrated a terrorist attack or murdered the emperor, the BBC is not going to be covering a story about a pop talent from Tokyo.鈥� I get up to return to my office.
鈥楽he鈥檚 not a talent, Rei, she鈥檚 an idol. She鈥檚 everywhere online. There are videos of them hanging around outside a brothel.鈥�
鈥楢 brothel? Who?鈥�
鈥楬er and Ichiro,鈥� Kiki says. 鈥榃ell, maybe not an actual brothel.鈥�
鈥榃ho the hell is Ichiro?鈥�
鈥楧on鈥檛 you know anything?鈥�
鈥楴othing current, as we鈥檝e already established.鈥� I sit back down at my desk.
It turns out our little sister, to the pearl-clutching horror of the Japanese public, has been caught doing the walk of shame with a married man. Not just any married man, but Suzu Ichiro, the president of Kansas Records, the biggest record label in the country, and my sister鈥檚 possibly erstwhile employer.
鈥業s he even hot?鈥� I ask, like it matters.
鈥楴o, obviously not 鈥� Hikaru, if you keep doing that, you鈥檙e going to shut your fingers in the drawer, and it will hurt 鈥� I mean, not that bad, for a suit. I guess the power might be attractive? He has quite nice eyes鈥斺��
鈥業t was kind of a rhetorical question.鈥�
Hikaru lets out a blood-curdling howl.
鈥業t鈥檚 OK, Hikaru, come here,鈥� my sister says, the tone of her voice changing not one iota. 鈥極h dear, does it hurt?鈥� I hear kisses, crooning noises that are almost obliterated by his fireengine wails.
鈥業 have to go, Rei,鈥� Kiki calls over the noise. 鈥楪oogle it!鈥�
Maybe it鈥檚 no bad thing that at that moment, Llewellyn sticks his head into the office and says that, actually, the client report needs to be ready in one hour, not three, and we鈥檙e presenting to the senior managers after lunch. I could swear he smirks as he says it. As he closes the door, my watch, an activity tracker that is never satisfied, orders me to 鈥楳ove!鈥� with a smiley face.
Excerpted from the book 鈥淜akigori Summer,鈥� provided courtesy of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright 漏 2025 by Emily Itami. Reprinted by permission.
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