Ms Ice Sandwich - Mieko Kawakami

A witty, moving story of adolescent love and loss from the acclaimed, prize-winning author of Breasts and Eggs

"Haruki
Murakami listed Kawakami as his favourite young writer, so you're going
to want to snatch up this lovely coming-of-age story about a boy who
becomes obsessed with a woman who sells sandwiches" - Bustle

In her English language debut, "ceaselessly growing and evolving"novelist Mieko Kawakami renders an adolsecent voice with laser precision (Haruki Murakami).

"Ms
Ice Sandwich" is a name I made up, of course. I thought of it the
minute I first saw her. Ms Ice Sandwich's eyelids are always painted
with a thick layer of a kind of electric blue, exactly the same colour
as those hard ice lollies that have been sitting in our freezer since
last summer.

A young boy returns obsessively to a supermarket
sandwich counter, entranced by the beauty of the woman who works there.
Her aloof demeanour and electric blue eyelids make him feel the most
intense joy he's ever known. He calls her Ms Ice Sandwich, and he wants
nothing more than to spend his days watching her coolly slip sandwiches
into bags.

But the complexities of life keep getting in the way -
his beloved grandmother's illness is only getting worse, and his mother
seems to be totally ignoring it. There's also his faltering friendship
with his classmate Tutti. As she invites him to join her in thrilling
games and fantasy, the boy begins to enter a whole new world of
imagination.

Wry, intimate and wonderfully skewed, Ms Ice Sandwich is a poignant depiction of the naivety and wisdom of youth, just as it is passing.