まぼろしハワイ

by Banana Yoshimoto

パパが死んで三ケ月。傷心のオハナは、義理の母でありフラダンサーのあざみとホノルル空港に降り立った。あざみの育ての親マサコの、永遠の踊りに出会い、薄青い空、濃い緑、白く尖った波を眺めているうちに、涙の嵐に襲われる日々が変わっていく。パパはもうどこにもいないけれど、人生は続くのだ。優しいハワイに包まれ、生命が輝き出す奇跡の物語。

Paperback Bunko

First published September 26, 2007

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto (よしもと ばなな or 吉本 ばなな) is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto (吉本 真秀子), a Japanese contemporary writer. She writes her name in hiragana. (See also 吉本芭娜娜 (Chinese).)

Along with having a famous father, poet Takaaki Yoshimoto, Banana's sister, Haruno Yoiko, is a well-known cartoonist in Japan. Growing up in a liberal family, she learned the value of independence from a young age.

She graduated from Nihon University's Art College, majoring in Literature. During that time, she took the pseudonym "Banana" after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous."

Despite her success, Yoshimoto remains a down-to-earth and obscure figure. Whenever she appears in public she eschews make-up and dresses simply. She keeps her personal life guarded, and reveals little about her certified Rolfing practitioner, Hiroyoshi Tahata and son (born in 2003). Instead, she talks about her writing. Each day she takes half an hour to write at her computer, and she says, "I tend to feel guilty because I write these stories almost for fun."