Yoshimoto Banana Born 1964. Graduated from Nihon University College of Art with a major in literature. Her 1987 debut novel, Kitchen, won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize, and in 1988 she won the 16th Izumi Kyoka Literary Prize for Moonlight Shadow. In 1989, she was awarded the 39th Best Newcomer Artists Recommended Prize by the Minister of Education for Kitchen and Utakata/Sankuchuari, and in the same year won the 2nd Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for Goodbye Tsugumi. In 1995, her novel Amrita was awarded the 5th Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature, and in 2000 won the 10th Bunkamura Les Deux Magots Literature Award for her novel Adultery and South America. Her books have been translated into over 30 languages, and she has won many awards outside of Japan. Her most recent books in Japan include Snack Chidori and Nap on a Flower Bed.   “The Lake” (Melville House)