(tent) Beloved

“To fall in love is to decide to love.” Raised by a mother more woman than maternal, and a stepfather who paints unsellable erotic prints, sisters Yurie and Marie grow up enveloped in an intense, unconventional household. From this vivid, tangled intimacy, each eventually finds her own version of love. Now a high school teacher, younger sister Marie falls for the brother of her student, Midoriko. But Midoriko’s lover, as it turns out, is none other than their mother’s current boyfriend… In this masterful novel by Akutagawa Prize–winning author Hiromi Kawakami, love unfolds in all its contradiction—tender and twisted, distant and dangerously close. A story of tangled hearts, chosen affections, and the inescapable pull of desire.