{"product_id":"gifted-by-suzumi-suzuki-9781761380440","title":"Gifted","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA moving portrayal of a troubled mother-daughter relationship, shortlisted for Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2008, the unnamed narrator of \u003cem\u003eGifted\u003c\/em\u003e is working as a hostess and living in Tokyo's nightlife district. One day, her estranged mother, who is seriously ill, suddenly turns up at her door.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs the mother approaches the end of her life, the two women must navigate their strained relationship, while the narrator also reckons with events happening in her own life, including the death of a close friend – all under the bright lights of Tokyo's 'sleepless town', Kabukicho.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn sharp, elegant prose, and based on the author's own experiences as a sex worker, \u003cem\u003eGifted\u003c\/em\u003e heralds the breakthrough of an exciting new literary talent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn this unsentimental novella, a young woman working as a bar hostess and sex worker in Tokyo reckons with several unresolved personal traumas ... Based on Suzuki's own experiences in the adult industry, the book chronicles the young woman's wanderings from bar to bar, hospital to home, with brutal honesty.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n— The New Yorker\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDemonstrates that death is the only way forward. Oozes with maternal cruelty.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n— Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eGifted explores beauty, and the body itself, as a troubling inheritance, a complicated gift that, at least for women, belongs to you but is never fully in your control.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n— Rebecca Hussey, Words Without Borders\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46544695034092,"sku":"9781761380440","price":36.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3105553482815.jpg?v=1749783405","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/gifted-by-suzumi-suzuki-9781761380440","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}