Kakigori Summer
- Authors: Emily Itami
- Series:
- Genres: General Fiction
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- Release Date: June 10, 2025
- Print length: 336 pages (Hardcover)
About the book
A wry and tender novel from the author of Fault Lines about three very different sisters reunited in adulthood for one short summer, for readers of Hello Beautiful and Blue Sisters.
Rei, Kiki, and Ai are three sisters who are separated by distance and different life situations. Rei is a driven finance professional living in London, Kiki is a single mother raising a young son and working at a retirement home in Tokyo, and Ai is the youngest sister who travels as a Japanese music idol. Despite the loss of both parents, the sisters rely on each other for support, even though they are scattered across the globe.
When Ai becomes involved in a scandal, Rei and Kiki put their own lives on hold to come to her aid. Spending a summer together at their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters reconnect with their tough grandmother, look after Kiki’s energetic son, and silently fret about Ai, all the while avoiding discussing the circumstances surrounding their mother's passing fifteen years earlier. However, the unspoken tension among the sisters can only remain buried for so long...
With its themes of love and loss, sisterhood and family, Kakigori Summer is a novel that transports readers and offers redemption. It is a contemplative reflection on the power of stories we tell ourselves about our past, allowing us to move forward and embrace the future.
Praise for this book
Kakigori Summer is a novel about belonging... I loved retreating into its cocoon of sibling humor as the sisters briefly stepped back to discover their place in it.