Book Club: Hiromi Kawakami

By Karen Zheng

A three-faced creature that lives in the dark corners of the kitchen. A housewife who eats stucco off the wall and habitually shoplifts. A mysterious weasel infestation in an apartment complex.

These are the bizarre happenings in Hiromi Kawakami’s short story “The Kitchen God” (2023). And it might just be my most treasured literary find to date.

If you are a fan of magical realism, then this is for you. “The Kitchen God” resides in that delightful space of the in-between. It contains an otherworldly strangeness that delicately blurs the line between myth and reality.

Izumi, the main protagonist of the tale, is a nuanced and intriguing character with an appetite for all things strange.

Kawakami’s writing is keenly observant, and maintains a brisk and lively pace which keeps you continually hooked. I was completely transfixed from start to finish.

You can find “The Kitchen God” in The New Yorker.

Or in Dragon Palace (2023) by Hiromi Kawakami.