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Now Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022
Kawakami's novella "Heaven" is set in the early 90's and tells the story of two middle schoolers who are relentlessly bullied, and the explanations they seek in order to make sense of their experiences. And make no mistake: We are talking about the kind of bullying that might feature in a movie, including lots of blood and even sexual violence. Our unnamed protagonist and narrator is a 14-year-old with a lazy eye who befriends his classmate Kojima, another kid who has to endure demeaning psychological and physical violence - what sets her apart from her classmates is that she decides to dress like a poor person.

Are the protagonist's and Kojima's special features flaws or signs of individuality? Do they have any meaning at all, isn't the reasoning behind othering individuals contingent? Not only are the probable causes of the bullying in doubt, the two also ponder coping mechanisms: Both don't fight back, but Kojima interprets this as wisdom, she almost acts like a martyr (this aspect reminded me of the movie which also connects torture to spiritual wisdom), while the narrator struggles with his ideas of humanism and morality while facing existentialist and nihilst arguments and actions.

So yes, Kawakami wrote a brutal morality tale that refrains from giving definitive answers, which connects her work to the attitude of Sayaka Murata. This has been my third Kawakami after Breasts and Eggs and Ms Ice Sandwich, both of which have been originally published after "Heaven", and all three books question the rules of society and what they do to people. I like how Kawakami does that in an unsettling way, and without being pedagogical. We have to find our individual answers ourselves.

You can listen to my interview with Frank Wynne, jury president of the International Booker 2022, .