Kakigori Summer: A Novel

The three Japanese sisters come alive in this story. The eldest is living in London and is highly successful in business. However, she is called upon to replay the role she performed after the drowning death of her mother and return to her family home. The middle sister is a single mother of a young son who is doted upon by the family. The youngest girl is a pop sensation whose notoriety has derailed her career. This young sister, Ai, cannot face her backfired celebrity. She reacts by retreating into herself and feeling the need for punishment and shame. The sisters recreate their young lives in their country home next to their disapproving great grandmother. The eldest, always a surrogate mother, longs for the man she pushed out of her life and resents the burdens she has always carried. Their interactions are true to the stresses that sisters place upon each other. Ai’s public shame has caused all three to regroup, rebound and see each other in the most comforting familiar and familial way.