Banana Yoshimoto

Author profile

born

July 24, 1964 in Tokyo, Japan

gender

female

website

http://www.yoshimotobanana.com

twitter username

y_banana

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Banana Yoshimoto (よしもとばなな ) (born July 24, 1964[1], in Tokyo) is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto (吉本真秀子 Yoshimoto Mahoko), a Japanese contemporary writer. She writes her name in hiragana.

Yoshimoto, daughter of Takaaki Yoshimoto, was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964. 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...more

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Books by Banana Yoshimoto

Average rating: 3.66 · 21,271 ratings · 1,728 reviews · 85 distinct works

	Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (Translation) 3.79 avg rating — 8,801 ratings — published 1987 — 39 editions	My rating:
	N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto, Ann Sherif (Translation) 3.55 avg rating — 2,294 ratings — published 1990 — 19 editions	My rating:
	Asleep 3.70 avg rating — 1,947 ratings — published 1989 — 19 editions	My rating:
	Goodbye Tsugumi 3.62 avg rating — 1,937 ratings — published 1989 — 24 editions	My rating:
	Lizard 3.60 avg rating — 1,809 ratings — published 1993 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Amrita 3.58 avg rating — 1,348 ratings — published 1994 — 21 editions	My rating:
	Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto, Michael Emmerich (Translator) 3.60 avg rating — 1,029 ratings — published 2001 — 12 editions	My rating:
	The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto, Michael Emmerich (Translator) 3.33 avg rating — 762 ratings — published 2005 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Honeymoon by Banana Yoshimoto, Giorgio Amitrano (Translator) 3.35 avg rating — 141 ratings — published 1997 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Sly 3.14 avg rating — 128 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Banana Yoshimoto

“Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”
― Banana Yoshimoto

150 people liked it

“Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Goodbye Tsugumi

tags: love

138 people liked it

“Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow, I'm dead, that's the sense I get. There isn't a single strong emotion inside me.”
― Banana Yoshimoto

tags: apathy , depression , kitchen

117 people liked it

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