Description
Now in a beautiful gift cloth edition, a masterpiece of postwar Japanese literature
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956. Set in the early postwar years, The Setting Sun probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. The influence of Osamu Dazai’s novel has made “people of the setting sun” a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
Reviews
"What I despise about Dazai is that he exposes precisely those things in myself that I most want to hide." — Yukio Mishima
"From the point of view of wholesome common sense, Dazai’s writings may be regarded as the soliloquies of a deviant." — Yasunari Kawabata
"Dazai offers something permanent and beautiful." — The New York Times Book Review
Also By: Osamu Dazai 
Self-Portraits: Stories
Paperback, 2024
Bringing together novelist Osamu Dazai's best autobiographical shorts in a single, slim volume, Self-Portraitsshows the legendary writer at his best—and his worst
The Flowers of Buffoonery
Paperback, 2023
For the first time in English, Osamu Dazai’s hilariously comic and deeply moving prequel toNo Longer Human
No Longer Human
Hardback, 2022
Now in a gift cloth edition, No Longer Human ponders profound alienation
Early Light
Hardback, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
Early Light
E Book, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
Also By: Donald Keene
No Longer Human
Hardback, 2022
Now in a gift cloth edition, No Longer Human ponders profound alienationEarly Light
Hardback, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer HumanEarly Light
E Book, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
No Longer Human
E Book, 2012
The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas.
No Longer Human
Paperback, 1973
The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas.