Breasts and Eggs

Breasts and Eggs (夏物語) is a novel by Mieko Kawakami, published by Bungeishunjū in July 2019. It features a completely rewritten version of Kawakami's 2008 novella Chichi to Ran (乳と卵), but uses the same characters and settings. An English translation was published in 2020, under the original novella's translated title of Breasts and Eggs. It is a completely different work from the novella, which has not been translated into English. The novel received the 73rd Mainichi Publication Culture Award.

Plot
The novel is divided in two parts and is narrated by Natsuko Natsume (夏目 夏子), an aspiring writer in Tokyo. In the first part, Natsuko's sister, Makiko (巻子), and her 12-year-old daughter, Midoriko (緑子), arrive in Tokyo from Osaka. Makiko has come to Tokyo seeking a clinic for breast augmentation. Midoriko has not spoken to her mother in six months. Midoriko's journal entries are interspersed and contain her thoughts about becoming a woman and recognising the changes in her body. In the second part, set years later, Natsuko contemplates becoming a mother and the options open to her as an older single woman in Japan.

Publication
In 2019, Kawakami published the two-part novel Natsu Monogatari (夏物語). The first half of Natsu Monogatari is a completely rewritten version of the original 2008 novella Chichi to Ran. The second half is a continuation of the narrative. It is considered a sequel to the original novella, using the same characters and settings. The first half was originally published in the March 2019 issue of Bungakukai. The second half was published in the April 2019 issue of Bungakukai.

English translation
It was translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd, but was published under the title of Breasts and Eggs, a translation of the original novella's title. Bett and Boyd's translation was published in the United States by Europa Editions on 7 April 2020. It was published in the United Kingdom by Picador on 20 August 2020.

English translation
Kirkus Reviews criticised the "flat" English translation, writing that Kawakami's writing style is "lost on Anglophone readers, and her frank talk about class and sexism and reproductive choice is noteworthy primarily within the context of Japanese literary culture."

Publishers Weekly praised the "bracing and evocative" narrative of the novel's first part, but felt the second part faltered into an "overlong and chatty" narrative.