What a book.
It looks at grief, growing up and friendship. It does this so lovingly and it is so impactful.
A great read

Ms Ice Sandwich
Mieko Kawakami
Louise Heal Kawai

I really enjoyed this charming novella about the life and relationships of a preteen boy in Japan who lives with his mother and grandmother and has a serious crush on the sandwich lady in his local supermarket. Although it’s a really short book, Ms Ice Sandwich manages to deal with the big life issues of love and loss in an engaging and sensitive way. A lovely read.
Thanks to Netgalley and to Pushkin press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

First love - and loss - at the sandwich counter.

Kawakami nails the voice of a teenager in love, in this quirky novella.

Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t super in love with Breasts and Eggs and actually didn’t click that it was the same author until I saw the cover art after reading this book.

This is a short novella about the one-sided infatuation between a young (neurodivergent – I’m guessing?) boy and Ms Ice Sandwich, a quirky woman who sells sandwiches in the local convenience store. It’s one of those books that would perhaps sound completely weird were you to describe it to someone but it’s a really sweet coming of age story.

The relationships between the boy and his fellow outsider Tutti, as well as his ailing grandmother, were portrayed in a genuinely touching way. It’s hard not to feel for the narrator as he struggles to find a place for himself in a world in which he doesn’t quite fit in and although the book is very short, we get to see how these relationships develop throughout the story.

I wasn’t sure how convincing the voice of the main character was at points. I’m assuming that a fourth grader is aged around nine years old or so. I felt he was coded a little older, perhaps 13-14 but it’s not as if that is something that impacted on my enjoyment of the book.

Overall a charming and thought-provoking read about childhood, life, loss and finding your place in the world.

This is slim coming of age novella.

The young narrator leads quite a lonely life. He finds himself becoming obsessed by a supermarket assistant with electric/ice blue painted eyelids who deftly puts sandwiches into bags.
This leads him to becoming friends with the equally lonely "Tutti" . These two share their less mainstream interests and build up a trusting relationship.
The other important relationship to the narrator is with their bed bound grandmother who seems to be silently dying. Indeed this is a book about the "unspoken".

My only reservation is that I heard the narrator's voice as "female" in my head, but did I have to be so "binary"?

It is powerful and memorable in the way a Murakami book is.- oblique but tender too.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


This is a slice-of-life story about a young boy and his infatuation with a woman who works in his local supermarket. From the first page, I found Mieko Kawakami's writing style to be very easy to get into and this was a very quick read.

I loved the development of the characters, particularly the narrators friend Tutti who had a really interesting family dynamic. I found her parts of the story to be the most engaging. I also enjoyed seeing artistic students portrayed realistically, not the overly eloquent teenagers that we see in some stories, but normal students who just happen to like art.

The main downside of this story was definitely how short it was; Ms Ice Sandwich as a character got very little time on page making her fit into the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope.

Overall I enjoyed this book but wish it was longer and therefore more richly developed. I would recommend it and will be looking to read more by this author.

3 out of 5 stars!

A quiet coming-of-age novella about a young boy infatuated by an aloof woman with bright blue eyelids who works in the local sandwich shop. Half his money goes on his daily visits where he can observe her prickly yet indifferent interactions with her customers. It's a story of young love and feeling like an outsider written in simple, quirky prose well-suited to its length.

I requested this book as I was interested in reading more Japenese literature since I really enjoyed Convenienve Store Woman. This short yet powerful novella has continued to open my eyes to the joys of Japanese literature.

It is essentially a charachter study of an adorable inncocent 8 year old and his little journey navigating his small world. It portrayed his inner thoughts and feelings so well that I got a lump in my throat when he did in his. We are also introduced to some other really interesting charachters such as Ms Ice Sandwhich and of course the loveable Tutti.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book was that it ended, I wanted to just keep going.

I feel the whole heart of the book is shown in a line from Tutti where she says
"There's loads of hard stuff in life, and maybe when we're grown-ups, there's going to be tons more hard stuff to deal with. And when that happens, I'm going to tell myself I can't give in or freeze up and get discouraged and do nothing. I have to believe that."

Ms Sandwich is a very cute novella, that talks about a child's curios fascination with the sandwich lady at the supermarket: he watches her closely and doesn't understand why people find her face odd, especially because he really likes it. He likes it so much, he draws a portrait of her.
This is a prime example of Japanese literature today, where Mieko Kawakami's style is recognizable and comparable to other of the great Japanese writers of today.
I would recommend this book because although it's short and seemingly simple, it deals with the complex emotions a child has at that age.
thank you Netgalley for providing a copy to review.

Thank you Pushkin Press and NetGalley for my ARC of this book!

This short but sweet contemporary novel by Mieko Kawakami was an enjoyable read over Easter weekend. It’s only 100 or so pages long, and I devoured it in a couple of hours. Ms Ice Sandwich tells the story of a young boy who is entranced by a woman who works as a supermarket sandwich counter. Her mysterious demeanour and vibrant, ice blue eyelids captivate him, and the story details the joys of youthful naivety through the boy’s eyes.

Kawakami’s way of capturing an adolescent joie de vivre really made this novel stand out for me. Throughout the story, we hear of the protagonist’s everyday mundanities, learn of loss and love and friendship, and I always like it when a novel provides a vignette into somebody’s colourful world. Japan is a beautiful country, and even more beautiful to explore continually through literature. What’s more, my beloved Murakami named Kawakami as one of his favourite young writers — I’ll definitely be looking to read more from this author.

'And now I can't move at all, and all I can do is hold my breath, and silently listen to the final sound, nothing to do but listen silently to the very last echo of that sound.'

Utterly beguiling, deceptively simple, this is a simply wonderful novella from Mieko Kawakami, getting a re-issue in advance of the publication of 'Breasts and Eggs' in a month or so. Our narrator is a fourth-grader, living with his mother and Grandma (his father's mother). He seems quite a lonely child, mildy OCD as he counts the cracks on the pavements, and utterly obsessed with the woman in the supermarket who serves the sandwiches, whom he has nicknamed Ms Ice Sandwich. As he battles with the everyday life of school work and his classmates, and his mother's attachment to her mobile phone, we learn more about him, his late father who may have read him a bedtime story that he half remembers, and the Grandma who is dying. He is friends with Doo-Wop and Tutti, a girl who he gradually starts to befriend and who, like him, has lost a parent. As he becomes more and more involved in drawing the perfect painting of Ms Ice Sandwich, is he going to miss out on what is right in front of him?

The narrative voice is perfect for the central character, and you can't help but be drawn into his world. The writing is also, at precisely perfect moments, lyrical to the point of poetic, and will just suddenly hit you with a sucker-punch that leaves you breathless. It may appear overly simplistic, but it's not, and the book's message of cherishing precious moments and not letting chances pass you by are universal in theme. A joyous quick read that will surely cheer up any reader who wants to enter into Kawakami's world:

'There's loads of hard stuff in life, and maybe when we're grown-ups, there's going to be tons more hard stuff to deal with. And when that happens, I'm going to tell myself I can't give in or freeze up and get discouraged and do nothing. I have to believe that.'

If ever there's a time for books like this, and authors like Kawakami, then surely that time is now. Just uplifting. Al Pacino!

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

This beautifully crafted novella was an absolute joy to read. I felt totally absorbed by the fourth grade narrator’s story and followed his emotions as he dealt with his infatuation with a sandwich seller, his friendship with a girl in his class, the illness of his frail bed-bound grandma and the relationship with his distant fortune-telling mother.

He dealt with a lot of big issues in his young life, but was sensitive and thoughtful without ever coming across as too adult for his age.

A short time to read, but a long time to think about.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

An usual story about the smallest of everyday obsessions and learning to let go of things.

The strangeness of the minutiae of life is well captured in this story. The voice is well done and feels like an accurate representation of the ideas and not-quite-understanding moments we have all had in youth.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found this little novella strangely moving: Kawakami tells the story of a fourth grader who learns about loss. The little boy has a crush on the woman who sells sandwiches at his local store, and when a disturbing incident keeps him from visting her, his friend Tutti, who has lost her mother to an illness, teaches him an important lesson. At the same time, the unnamed boy is struggling with the fact that his ailing grandmother is getting worse.

Kawakami tells the story from the little boy's point of view, and she does a fantastic job depicting how he is trying to make sense of his feelings and explain his actions. A wonderful short text, and I'll defintely read more by this author.

Heart-warming, quiet and delicate; Kawakami's "Ms Ice Sandwich" touches on the themes of growing up, of love and loss in a subtle yet painfully sincere manner.

This is a short and effective novella about dealing with loss and growing up, and a small boy’s infatuation with the woman who serves sandwiches in his local store. It talks about big things by focusing on little things. To be so convincingly inside a young boy’s head is a remarkable feat of empathy from Kawakami. She was a new author to me, and I will be looking for more of her work.

Short and sweet and more than a little bit charming.
Definitely left me with the feel good feeling.

2.5 rounded up

A sweet coming of age story following a boy who becomes obsessed with a surly woman who sells - you've guessed it - sandwiches in his local store. I most enjoyed the author's portrayal of his friendship with a girl from school, Tutti, a young girl who has lost her mother (the unnamed protagonist's grandma is poorly). Not sure it'll linger in my mind for long, but this was a pleasant enough way to spend an hour or so reading time.