Fault Lines: A Novel

by Emily Itami

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

How do you choose between the life you have (complete with charming husband and very cute children) and the life you think you want with someone else entirely? OK, maybe your husband could work less and help more at home, but do you really want to pull the rug out from everything you've made in the last ten years? This bright, thoughtful novel set in Tokyo asks plenty of universal questions about what we need and what we want in ways that fans of Sally Rooney's novels, Emma Straub's All Adults Here or Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace won't want to miss.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD

"What is the cost of a mother’s desire?...Emily Itami explores this question with wit and poignancy." -- New York Times Book Review

"The perfect marriage of Sally Rooney and early Murakami." -- Kathy Wang, author of Impostor Syndrome

Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.

Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship, and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives—and in the end, we can choose only one.

Funny, provocative, and startlingly honest, Fault Lines is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, who am I and how did I get here? A bittersweet love story and a piercing portrait of female identity, it introduces Emily Itami as a debut novelist with astounding resonance and wit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063099821
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	138,081
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Emily Itami grew up in Tokyo and returned there to live when her children were young. She now lives in London. She has been published widely as a freelance journalist and travel writer. This is her first novel. 

Editorial Reviews

07/26/2021

In Itami’s thoughtful debut, an affluent and disaffected Tokyo housewife and mother has an affair and reflects on her life choices. At 16, Mizuki travels from her rural Japanese province to New York City to spend a year in an American high school, where she learns to be assertive and pursues an interest in music. Back in Japan, she struggles in school, raging against her “stupid, archaic system of letters,” and returns to New York, where she spends another three years and sings in a band. She continues her rebellious music career back in Tokyo, until she despairs from a lack of financial security and marries Tatsuya. After a decade of a loving marriage and two children, Tatsuya starts coming home cranky and distracted after long hours at work. He loves their two young children, but doesn’t help with their upbringing; he treats Mizuki with disdain. Mizuki then becomes fast friends with charming restaurateur Teramoto Kiyoshi, with whom she’s able to share her Americanized perspective. She initially resists her attraction to him, but their friendship soon blossoms into a romance. While a somewhat pat ending feels unworthy of the novel’s provocative premise, Itami makes palpable Mizuki’s loneliness and her need to feel seen. Itami’s brave, frank portrayal of Japan’s societal expectations of women is worth a look. Agent: Kirsty McLachlan, Morgan Green Creatives. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"What’s intriguing about Fault Lines is its shrewd commentary on Japan’s societal expectations of women as either sex objects or dutiful mothers. As Mizuki eventually learns, it’s in striking a workable balance between these two dichotomies — her past life versus her present one, titillating desire versus familial obligations, who she wants to be versus who society dictates she should be — that the real work of living begins.” — Washington Post

“A complicated romance with immense empathy for all its characters and their flaws [and] a wonderfully nuanced take on Tokyo life.” — Popsugar

"Sharp and stunning." — New York Post

"This remarkably strong debut has volumes to say about choices, adulthood, tradition and freedom." — Ms. magazine

"Wanderlust warning! Itami's dreamy debut will have you craving a trip to Tokyo." — E! Online

"What is the cost of a mother’s desire?...Emily Itami explores this question with wit and poignancy." — New York Times Book Review

"Sexy, laugh-out-loud funny, and full of prose as sumptuous as the meals described, Fault Lines is a must read for anyone fond of Sally Rooney’s expert characterization and Haruki Murakami’s immersive world-building." — Bon Appétit

"Mizuki is one of the most engaging adulteresses I’ve ever encountered, and a wonderfully witty guide to the morals and mores of contemporary Tokyo. I now know just how to behave while picking up children from school, or meeting strangers. Fault Lines is a moving and suspenseful novel full of the best kinds of incidental wisdom." — Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field

“Fault Lines manages to be clever, wise, and heartbreaking all at once — the book is the perfect marriage of Sally Rooney and early Murakami, with a unique insight into marriage, motherhood, and warring cultural expectations that is all Emily Itami's own. Absolutely brilliant." — Kathy Wang, author of Impostor Syndrome

“Fault Lines is full of laugh-out-loud, irreverent humor, as well as heartstoppingly poignant, yet seemingly incidental, wisdom. All of the inner yearnings and tribulations of Mizuki are laid bare, offering one of the fullest, most thorough depictions of a character I have ever read. … Every line here is razor-sharp, chosen with precision, resulting in a deceptively clever, emotionally wise and truly heartbreaking novel.” — Bookreporter.com

"Brilliant." — Booklist

"Funny and tender." — Bustle

“A brilliant modern love story. I found it atmospheric and transporting but also wise, clever, and universal in its exploration of love, family, and identity. I loved it.” — Cathy Rentzenbrink, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Act of Love

“An addictive and beautiful novel with a fantastic voice, full of wry humor and sharp observations. It’s funny and tragic, passionate and bold, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come.” — Kate Murray-Browne, author of The Upstairs Room

"Dazzling." — Popsugar

“This delicate and beautiful love story will fill your heart. … Short, emotional and very funny, Emily Itami’s debut is an unmissable treat for romantics everywhere.” — Stylist (UK)

From the Publisher

"What is the cost of a mother’s desire?...Emily Itami explores this question with wit and poignancy."

New York Times Book Review

"Mizuki is one of the most engaging adulteresses I’ve ever encountered, and a wonderfully witty guide to the morals and mores of contemporary Tokyo. I now know just how to behave while picking up children from school, or meeting strangers. Fault Lines is a moving and suspenseful novel full of the best kinds of incidental wisdom."

Margot Livesey

“Fault Lines is full of laugh-out-loud, irreverent humor, as well as heartstoppingly poignant, yet seemingly incidental, wisdom. All of the inner yearnings and tribulations of Mizuki are laid bare, offering one of the fullest, most thorough depictions of a character I have ever read. … Every line here is razor-sharp, chosen with precision, resulting in a deceptively clever, emotionally wise and truly heartbreaking novel.

Bookreporter.com

"Sexy, laugh-out-loud funny, and full of prose as sumptuous as the meals described, Fault Lines is a must read for anyone fond of Sally Rooney’s expert characterization and Haruki Murakami’s immersive world-building."

Bon Appétit

"Wanderlust warning! Itami's dreamy debut will have you craving a trip to Tokyo."

E! Online

"This remarkably strong debut has volumes to say about choices, adulthood, tradition and freedom."

Ms. magazine

"Sharp and stunning."

New York Post

Fault Lines manages to be clever, wise, and heartbreaking all at once — the book is the perfect marriage of Sally Rooney and early Murakami, with a unique insight into marriage, motherhood, and warring cultural expectations that is all Emily Itami's own. Absolutely brilliant."

Kathy Wang

A complicated romance with immense empathy for all its characters and their flaws [and] a wonderfully nuanced take on Tokyo life.

Popsugar

"What’s intriguing about Fault Lines is its shrewd commentary on Japan’s societal expectations of women as either sex objects or dutiful mothers. As Mizuki eventually learns, it’s in striking a workable balance between these two dichotomies — her past life versus her present one, titillating desire versus familial obligations, who she wants to be versus who society dictates she should be — that the real work of living begins.

Washington Post

"What’s intriguing about Fault Lines is its shrewd commentary on Japan’s societal expectations of women as either sex objects or dutiful mothers. As Mizuki eventually learns, it’s in striking a workable balance between these two dichotomies — her past life versus her present one, titillating desire versus familial obligations, who she wants to be versus who society dictates she should be — that the real work of living begins.

Washington Post

An addictive and beautiful novel with a fantastic voice, full of wry humor and sharp observations. It’s funny and tragic, passionate and bold, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Kate Murray-Browne

A brilliant modern love story. I found it atmospheric and transporting but also wise, clever, and universal in its exploration of love, family, and identity. I loved it.

Cathy Rentzenbrink

"Brilliant."

Booklist

"Brilliant."

Booklist