Abstract

Kakei Kaneko, a former underwear seamstress, lives alone with dementia, cared for by an ever-revolving team of carers, day service staff, and family members. Following her somewhat scrambled consciousness as she navigates the world around her, we piece together an overview not only of her current situation and her exploitation by family members with designs on her inheritance, but also her trauma and hardship-studded past that has led her to this point. As the connection between the care workers who support her now, and her beloved daughter Michiko who was her one true ray of hope and died aged three, Kakei embarks on an audacious plan to assert her own will and leave her savings to her care workers—an act of hope and faith that ends up costing her life.

Author’s Information

Mimi Nagai was born in 1965, in Kanagawa. She won the 45th Subaru Newcomer’s Prize for her debut novel The Sewing Machine and the Goldfish which she wrote while working as a care manager for the elderly. She has spoken publicly of her life-long desire to become an author, while doing so many different jobs, revealing that it was only her near-death experience with coronavirus that convinced her to finally give writing a proper attempt. The Sewing Machine and the Goldfish has been nominated for the prestigious Yukio Mishima Prize, and attracted praise from Mieko Kawakami, author of Breasts and Eggs, and Hitomi Kanehara, author of Snakes and Earrings.