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Title details for See Loss See Also Love by Yukiko Tominaga - Wait list

See Loss See Also Love

A Novel

by Yukiko Tominaga
Jensen Olaya
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Longlisted for the 2025 PEN Open Book Award * A Martin Cruz Smith Award for Emerging Diverse Voices Finalist in the CALIBA 2024 Golden Poppy Book Awards * "This debut novel breaks all the rules...capturing loss in all its belligerent rage and raw humor." —Oprah Daily * "Full of heart." —PureWow *

A tender, wry, and shamelessly honest novel following a Japanese widow raising her son between worlds with the help of her Jewish mother-in-law as she wrestles with grief, loss, and—strangest of all—joy.
Shortly after her husband Levi's untimely death, Kyoko decides to raise their young son, Alex, in San Francisco, rather than return to Japan. Her nosy yet loving Jewish mother-in-law, Bubbe, encourages her to find new love and abandon frugality but her own mother wants Kyoko to celebrate her now husbandless life. Always beside her is Alex, who lives confidently, no matter the circumstance.

Four sections of vignettes reflect Kyoko's fluctuating emotional states—sometimes ugly, other times funny, but always uniquely hers. While freshly mourning Levi, Kyoko and Alex confront another death—that of Alex's pet fish. Kyoko and Bubbe take a road trip to a psychic and discover that Kyoko carries bad karma. On visits back to Japan, Kyoko and her mother clash over how best to connect Alex with his Japanese heritage, and as Alex enters his teenage years and brings his first girlfriend home, Kyoko lets her imagination run wild as she worries about teen pregnancy.

In this openhearted and surprising novel about the choices and relationships that sustain us, there are times where Kyoko is lonely but never alone and others in which she is alone but never lonely. Through these moments, she learns how much more there is to herself in the wake of total and unexpected upheaval. "A penetrating look at the complexities of grief, love, and joy" (Booklist) See: Loss. See Also: Love. is also a testament to the spiraling awareness of the vast range of human emotion we experience every day.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 7, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797174389
      • File size: 196416 KB
      • Duration: 06:49:11

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 6, 2024
      In this wry debut from Tominaga, a Japanese woman navigates single parenthood after her American husband’s untimely death. Kyoko is visiting her parents in Japan with her 18-month-old son, Alex, when her husband, Levi, is crushed to death in their San Francisco garage by the antique car he was working on. Kyoko had stopped working after Alex was born, and she struggles to see how she’ll afford her life in San Francisco. She cuts down on her costs, finds work at a preschool, and receives emotional support from her blunt and loving mother-in-law, Bubbe. The women’s relationship forms the heart of the episodic narrative, which includes a visit to a psychic who claims Levi wasn’t happy with Kyoko. At one point, Kyoko suppresses the urge to tell Bubbe how little she misses Levi, thinking, “The greatest gift he gave me was the opportunity to raise Alex alone”; at another, Bubbe affectionately calls Kyoko her daughter, not her daughter-in-law. Tominaga depicts the women’s tensions, misunderstandings, and affection with refreshing honesty and piercing insights (“Regret, resentment, and shame would build a wall around you, believed, and by telling the truth we would break the wall and unite”). Tominga impresses with this distinctive slice of life.

    • Library Journal

      September 13, 2024

      When Kyoko is unexpectedly widowed, she must choose between returning to Japan to raise her young son, Alex, or remaining in the United States. Torn between her traditional upbringing and a desire to give Alex more freedom and opportunity, she forges her own path and settles in San Francisco. Four stories follow the course of Kyoko's and Alex's lives through loss, loneliness, and love, from a road trip with Kyoko's "Jewish genie" mother-in-law to Alex's first fumbling romance. Their journey shows that happiness and humor can still be found in the wake of heartbreak. Tominaga makes a thought-provoking debut with this intricate novel whose various vignettes focus on motherhood, womanhood, and other aspects of the human experience. Narrator Jensen Olaya gives an engaging performance of Kyoko's first-person perspective. Her no-frills delivery enhances the disconnect that Kyoko feels after her husband's death and the candid, compelling stories that follow. VERDICT Will appeal to listeners seeking a complex, character-driven literary fiction about families and how they move forward through grief and guilt. Recommended for fans of Celeste Ng, Karin Lin-Greenberg, and Carolyn Prusa.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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