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A wry and tender novel from the author of Fault Lines about three very different sisters reunited in adulthood for one short summer, for readers of Hello Beautiful and Blue Sisters.
Rei, Kiki, and Ai are three sisters divided by distance and circumstance. Ambitious Rei works in finance in London; Kiki is the single mother of a young son, working in a retirement home in Tokyo; and Ai, the youngest, is a peripatetic Japanese music idol. Having lost both parents, one way or another, the sisters rely on each other as family, far-flung as they are.
When Ai is embroiled in a scandal, Rei and Kiki pause their own lives to rescue their baby sister. Over the course of a summer spent in their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters will reunite with their sharp-edged grandmother, care for Kiki's irrepressible son, and silently worry about Ai, all while carefully not talking about the circumstances of their mother's death fifteen years before. But silence between sisters can only last for so long…
A transporting and redemptive novel, Kakigori Summer is a hopeful meditation on love and loss, sisterhood and family, and a profound exploration of the stories we tell ourselves about our past that enable us to move forward into the future.
What are you reading this week? (7/10/2025)
I'm reading Kakigori Summer, by Emily Itami. It's an interesting story about three Japanese sisters reunited after one of them is involved in a messy scandal. Despite the cultural differences, they are not so different from other sisters.
-Susan_W1
"[A]n inviting and wistful tale...Itami strikes just the right chord, showing how the sisters indulge their nostalgia for happier times even as they attempt to reckon with their painful memories. Readers are in for a treat." —Publishers Weekly
"Itami's voice is sharp, funny, and deeply empathetic, weaving together wit and poignancy in a character-driven narrative that feels fresh, heartfelt, and painfully real. She deftly explores celebrity culture in Japan, the emotional toll of perfectionism, and the jagged, enduring bond between sisters who couldn't be more different but are bound by shared loss and love." —Booklist
"Itami writes the sisters as fully developed individuals with believable, strong bonds between them, and the seaside hometown is described vividly enough to almost be its own character. A bittersweet and wry family drama for fans of Sally Rooney." —Library Journal
"I adore Emily Itami's writing...Kakigori Summer is a novel about belonging, both within a family and the wider world, and I loved retreating into its cocoon of sibling humor as the sisters briefly stepped back to discover their place in it. Cozy, dreamy, although you're never too far from a line that's sharply astute." —Florence Knapp, author of The Names
"I loved Kakigori Summer...The sisters felt completely real, my sympathies finely balanced between all three of them and their different internal struggles were beautifully and poignantly evoked...I loved the well-crafted prose, the distinctive, slightly acerbic turns of phrase...joyful and uplifting too: the romantic and hopeful ending felt just right." —Kate Murray-Browne, author of One Girl Began
This information about Kakigori Summer was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Emily Itami is the author of Fault Lines. She grew up in Tokyo and returned there to live when her children were young. She now lives in London. She has been published widely as a freelance journalist and travel writer.
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