No Longer Human
15 November 2022
Territory Rights — Worldwide.
Description
Now in a gift cloth edition, No Longer Human ponders profound alienation
Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a “clown” to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: “The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing.” (The Japan Times)
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
"No Longer Human is his masterpiece, though all his work is worthy. Dazai was an aristocratic tramp, a self described delinquent, yet he wrote with the forbearance of a fasting scribe."
— Patit Smith
"Dazai’s brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment." — Andrew Martin, The New York Times
Also By: Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
Paperback, 1968
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.
Osamu Dazai, Sam Bett
Paperback, 2024
For fans of No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai's darkly bewitching novel about the small redemptions of being a pathetic, miserable writer
Osamu Dazai, Ralph McCarthy
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
Osamu Dazai, Sam Bett
Paperback, 2023
For the first time in English, Osamu Dazai’s hilariously comic and deeply moving prequel toNo Longer Human
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
Hardback, 2022
Now in a beautiful gift cloth edition, a masterpiece of postwar Japanese literature
Also By: Donald Keene
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
Paperback, 1968
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
Hardback, 2022
Now in a beautiful gift cloth edition, a masterpiece of postwar Japanese literature
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene, Ralph McCarthy
Hardback, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene, Ralph McCarthy
E Book, 2022
Early Light gathers three tales by Osamu Dazai, author of the wildly popular No Longer Human
Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene
E Book, 2014
This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.