Description

Now a feature film starring Alexandra Daddario 

An achingly honest debut novel of memory, self-destruction, and relationships set in contemporary Tokyo

Sometimes, when I’m staring down a room of Japanese stewardesses-in-training, looking across a sea of shiny black coifs, a chorus line of stockinged legs, knees together, toes to the side, when I’m chanting, “Sir, you are endangering yourself and other passengers!” I think I should have let my brother stab me . . .

Margaret is doing everything in her power to forget home. And Tokyo’s red light district—teeming with intoxicants, pornography, and seedy love hotels—is almost enough to keep at bay memories of her brother Frank’s descent into schizophrenia. But sobriety brings the past flooding back, along with a pervasive fear that she, too, is destined to battle mental illness.

Working as an English specialist at a training academy for Japanese stewardesses by day, and losing herself at night in drugs, alcohol, and S&M fueled sex in the arms of anonymous men, Margaret numbs her loneliness with self destruction, wondering when she’ll take things too far. And when she falls for a married man who is part of Tokyo’s illicit underworld, their relationship might finally force her hand. . . .

About the Author

Catherine Hanrahan 's fiction has appeared in Zoetrope All-Story Extra and Open City. Born in Montreal, she has lived in Thailand, England, and Japan, where she worked as a bar hostess and English teacher.

Praise For…

“Edgy, hip… This insider view of high–end Japanese youth culture is wicked and unsparing.” — Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW

“This ambitious first novel may blow a few of the book-and-brunch set out of their orientalist armchairs…” — Toronto Globe and Mail

“Hanrahan presents a Tokyo far from cherry blossoms and Zen temples…an admirable debut, sharp as a samurai’s sword.” — Calgary Herald

“Catherine Hanrahan’s first novel, Lost Girls And Love Hotels, shows huge potential.” — Now Magazine (Canada)

“Lost Girls and Love Hotels could almost be read as an alternative travel guide.” — Quill & Quire