Breasts and Eggs: A Daring Exploration of Womanhood, Identity, and Survival

"What does it mean to have a body, to be a woman, to want more?"

On a sweltering summer day in Tokyo, three women—each at a crossroads in life—confront the pressures of womanhood, class, and self-determination.

Thirty-year-old Natsuko welcomes her older sister Makiko and teenage niece Midoriko into her cramped apartment. Makiko, an aging hostess, is obsessed with the idea of breast enhancement surgery, desperate to cling to youth and desirability. Midoriko, drowning in the turmoil of adolescence, has fallen into an eerie silence, unable to reconcile her changing body with the world’s relentless expectations.

Years later, Natsuko, now a writer, embarks on a deeply personal journey, grappling with her own body, desires, and the legacy of her past. As she navigates love, motherhood, and the crushing weight of societal norms, she must decide what kind of future she wants to carve for herself.

Raw, unflinching, and deeply intimate, Breasts and Eggs is a fearless meditation on womanhood in modern Japan. Mieko Kawakami delivers a groundbreaking novel—one that is at once tender and piercing, a powerful testament to the complexities of female existence.