©2025 Fable Group Inc.
3.5 

Ms Ice Sandwich

By Mieko Kawakami & Louise Heal Kawai
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami & Louise Heal Kawai digital book - Fable

Why read on Fable?

Discover social reading

Chat inside the ebook with emojis, comments and more

Annotate with notes, tabs, and highlights

Share or keep your notes private with our annotation features

Support the World Literacy Foundation

We donate 20% of every book sale to help children learn to read

Publisher Description

A quixotic and funny tale about first love - from the Akutagawa Prize-winning author.


A boy is obsessed with a woman who sells sandwiches. He goes to the supermarket almost every day, just so he can look at her face. She is beautiful to him, and he calls her "Ms Ice Sandwich", and endlessly draws her portrait.

But the boy's friend hears about this hesitant adoration, and suddenly everything changes. His visits to Ms Ice Sandwich stop, and with them the last hopes of his childhood.

A moving and surprisingly funny tale of growing up and learning how to lose, Ms Ice Sandwich is Mieko Kawakami at her very best.

1365 Reviews

3.5
“Kawakami’s “Ms Ice Sandwich” is a short coming-of-age story about a boy and his obsession with a woman with blue eye-liner who works at a sandwich shop. I enjoy Kawakami’s writing style and her work in general but this just didn’t really stand out to me. I enjoyed reading it, it just wasn’t that interesting outside of that. Still, was a fun read and I love the writing style and text — it just isn’t amazing either.”
Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes“This author never disappoints”
Slightly Smiling Face“this is my first Mieko Kawakami book. i enjoyed this book, really. it's a light read, and i love it. reading something from a perspective of a boy in fourth grade is a unique experience. the way he talks about his feelings towards himself, Ms. Ice Sandwich, his mom, his grandma, his friends (Tutti & Doo-Wop), and other people around him (those three dancer girls and Tutti's dad) is so fascinating and realistic—i can definitely see a 10-year-old boy said all these things & all these thoughts written in this book. Mieko Kawakami can really positioned herself as an elementary school boy and she made a really great story from this perspective too. my favorite quote from this book: "Because that's what's going to happen. When you say see you tomorrow to someone, it's because you're going to keep seeing them. It's like at school you see everybody because they go to school every day. But when you graduate and you don't go to school any more, it stops and you don't see everybody any more. If you want to see somebody, you have to make plans to meet, or even make plans to make plans, and next thing you end up not seeing them any more. That's what's going to happen. If you don't see somebody, you end up never seeing them. And then there's going to be nothing left of them at all." things i love about this book: - the language used is so easy to understand, no advanced vocabulary—it's a language a fourth grader would use - the boy's heartwarming interaction with his grandma - his friendship with Tutti - his realistic feelings and actions towards Ms. Ice Sandwich - how the author perfectly captures every thought of a 10-year-old boy in an interesting way and not boring at all (even though to some this story may seem too short and simple) 5 stars. short, but remarkable. (it's only 92 pages!!)”

About Mieko Kawakami

Mieko Kawakami was born in Osaka in 1976. Her first break was as a singer, making her major-label debut in 2002 and going on to release three albums. Eventually she branched out into writing, first submitting poems to literary magazines and then winning the Akutagawa Prize in 2008. In 2010 she received the MEXT Award for New Artists and the Murasaki Shikibu Literary Prize for her first full-length novel Heaven. She is the author of the novel Breasts and Eggs.

Originally from Manchester, UK, Louise Heal Kawai has lived in Japan for about 25 years and been a translator of Japanese literature for the past 10. Her translations include the bestselling memoir Yakuza Moon by Shoko Tendo, the ground-breaking feminist Taeko Tomioka novel Building Waves, and A Quiet Place by the mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto. Ms Ice Sandwich is her second Mieko Kawakami translation.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB