De sovende skønheder
Den japanske nobelpristager Yasunari Kawabatas sene mesterværk om alderdom, begær og moral. En mørk aften ankommer den gamle mand Eguchi til et ensomt beliggende hus for at opleve en hemmelig og forbudt nydelse. I huset kan man mod betaling få lov at sove ved siden af en nøgen ung pige. Pigerne er ”lagt til at sove” med et stærkt sovemiddel og kan ikke vækkes, og det er ikke tilladt at forgribe sig på dem. Huset har tillid til kunderne, for kun gamle mænd, der har mistet deres seksuelle formåen, har adgang. Bogen følger gamle Eguchi gennem dette og flere intense natlige besøg – hver gang hos en ny pige – hvor han gennemgår et væld af følelser, tanker, drømme og erindringer. Kawabata fører med sin uovertrufne prosa læseren dybt ind i dette menneskes indre liv og maner den besynderlige og problematiske situation frem, så man nærmest føler, at man er der selv. YASUNARI KAWABATA (1899-1972) er en af det 20. århundredes største japanske forfattere på linje med for eksempel Yukio Mishima. I
Dandelions
The exquisite last novel from Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata Ineko has lost the ability to see things. At first it was a ping-pong ball, then it was her fiancé. The doctors call it 'body blindness', and she is placed in a psychiatric...
Thousand Cranes
With a restraint that barely conceals the ferocity of his characters' passions, one of Japan's great postwar novelists tells the luminous story of Kikuji and the tea party he attends with Mrs. Ota, the rival of his dead father's mistress. A tale of desire, regret, and sensual nostalgia, every gesture has a meaning, and even the most fleeting touch or casual utterance has the power to illuminate entire lives--sometimes in the same moment that it destroys them. Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker. 'A novel of exquisite artistry...rich suggestibility...and a story that is human, vivid and moving.'--New York Herald Tribune Kawabata is a poet of the gentlest shades, of the evanescent, the imperceptible. This is a tragedy in soft focus, but its passions are fierce.'--Commonweal
First Snow on Fuji
The stories of Yasunari Kawabata evoke an unmistakably Japanese atmosphere in their delicacy, understatement, and lyrical description. Like his later works, First Snow on Fuji is concerned with forms of presence and absence, with being, with memory and loss of memory, with not-knowing. Kawabata lets us slide into the lives of people who have been shattered by war, loss, and longing. These stories are beautiful and melancholy, filled with Kawabata's unerring vision of human psychology. First Snow on Fuji was originally published in Japan in 1958, ten years before Kawabata received the Nobel Prize. Kawabata selected the stories for this collection himself, and the result is a stunning assembly of disparate moods and genres. This new edition is the first to be published in English.
Master of Go
Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other's black or white stones. Simple in its fundamentals, infinitely complex in its execution, it is an essential expression of the Japanese sensibility. And in his fictional ...
Beauty and Sadness
The successful writer Oki has reached middle age and is filled with regrets. He returns to Kyoto to find Otoko, a young woman with whom he had a terrible affair many years before, and discovers that she is now a painter, living with a younger woma...
Thousand Cranes
'Thousand Cranes has the qualities of the best Japanese writing: a stunning economy, delicacy of feeling, and a painter's sensitivity to the visible world' Atlantic Kikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father. He is ...
Snelandet
'En ætsende smuk og ædende ond kærlighedshistorie' - Jyllands-Posten '... intet mindre end et hovedværk i den japanske litteratur.' - Information 'Snelandet er et mesterværk.' - Litteratursiden Yasunari Kawbatas mesterværk fra 1947 er en tragisk og underspillet fortælling om det umulige og ulige kærlighedsforhold, der udfolder sig i en kurbadeby i snelandet mellem geishaen Komako og gæsten Shimamura fra Tokyo. Snelandet blev særlig fremhævet, da Yasunari Kawabata i 1968 modtog Nobelprisen i Litteratur for sin evne til at formidle den japanske ånd og kultur.
Thousand Cranes
90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Kikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father, only to find that the mistress' rival and successor is also present. He falls for her, with devastating consequence...
Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories
Available again, a newly translated collection of twenty-three stories from one of the most influential figures in modern Japanese literature. 'He employs devices from those long poetic traditions in order to create in modern prose his remarkable effects: juxtaposition of image upon image to open up the depths of feeling lurking behind placid surface reality.' Washington Post'We owe Martin Holman this insight, for in rendering these important early writings into English, it is he who has shown us that the author in his youth was already the mature Yasunari Kawabata.'Japan TimesYasunari Kawabata is widely known for his innovative short stories, some called 'palm-of-the-hand' stories short enough to fit into ones palm. This collection reflects Kawabata's keen perception, deceptive simplicity, and the deep melancholy that characterizes much of his work. The stories were written between 1923 and 1929, and many feature autobiographical events and themes that reflect the painful losses he
Snow Country
Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata's 'Snow Country' is widely considered to be the writer's masterpiece: a powerful tale of wasted love set amid the desolate beauty of western Japan. At an isolated mountain hot spring, with snow blanketing every surface, Shimamura, a wealthy dilettante meets Komako, a lowly geisha. She gives herself to him fully and without remorse, despite knowing that their passion cannot last and that the affair can have only one outcome. In chronicling the course of this doomed romance, Kawabata has created a story for the ages -- a stunning novel dense in implication and exalting in its sadness.
The Old Capital
The Old Capital is one of the three novels cited specifically by the Nobel Committee when they awarded Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. With the ethereal tone and aesthetic styling characteristic of Kawabata's prose, The Old Capital tells the story of Chieko, the adopted daughter of a Kyoto kimono designer, Takichiro, and his wife, Shige. Set in the traditional city of Kyoto, Japan, this deeply poetic story revolves around Chieko who becomes bewildered and troubled as she discovers the true facets of her past. With the harmony and time-honored customs of a Japanese backdrop, the story becomes poignant as Chieko's longing and confusion develops.
Danserskan på Izu ; Varmbadhusen
Glädjechocken får den unge mannen att tappa målföret när han hinner ikapp den lilla danserskan uppe i testugan. Men resan är av ödet utstakad, på andra sidan tunneln breder det löftesrika landskapet ut sig och vandringen får ett nytt och hjärtevärmande innehåll. Den som reser har något att berätta – och snart hundra år efter berättelsens tilldragelse föreligger Kawabatas genombrottsverk på svenska.
Med regnbågen som sällskap
Med regnbågen som sällskap av Yasunari Kawabata i svensk översättning från japanska av Lars Vargö Handlingen utspelar sig strax efter Andra Världskriget kriget och tar upp känsliga ämnen som otrohet, utomäktenskapliga barn och abort – och inte minst hur människorna lever i den tidens kulturella brytningstid i Japan. En arkitekt och hans två äldsta döttrar bor i Tokyo, men handlingen förläggs
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata felt the essence of his art was to be found not in his longer works but in a series of short stories--which he called 'Palm-of-the-Hand Stories'--written over the span of his career. In them we find loneliness, love, and the passage of time, demonstrating the range and complexity of a true master of short fiction.
Snow Country
Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Tired of the bustling city, a man takes the train through the snow to Japan's mountains, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, she is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a life of servitude and seclusion.
The Sound of the Mountain
Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain is a beautiful rendering of the predicament of old age -- the gradual, reluctant narrowing of a human life, along with the sudden upsurges of passion that illuminate its closing. By day Ogata Shingo, an elderly Tokyo businessman, is troubled by small failures of memory. At night he associates the distant rumble he hears from the nearby mountain with the sounds of death. In between are the complex relationships that were once the foundations of Shingo's life: his trying wife; his philandering son; and his beautiful daughter-in-law, who inspires in him both pity and the stirrings of desire. Out of this translucent web of attachments, Kawabata has crafted a novel that is a powerful, serenely observed meditation on the relentless march of time.
Sound of the Mountain
Ogata Shingo is growing old, and his memory is failing him. At night he hears only the sound of death in the distant rumble from the mountain. The relationships which have previously defined his life - with his son, his wife, and his attractive da...
Snow Country
A tale of wasted love, and beauty, by Japan's literary master Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innoc...
Skönhet och sorg
På ytan en roman om sexualitet och hämnd men som är en djupdykning i japansk estetik. För hämnden står den unga konstnärinnan Keiko, som skrider till verket med den egna kroppen som verktyg. Föremålet för hämnden är den berömde författaren Ōki, hennes lärarinnas första förälskelse, som i sin ungdom gjorde den då femtonåriga flickan gravid och vann berömmelse på affären i sitt litterära genombrott.
The Rainbow
'In this masterpiece Kawabata, his brush dipped in silver, renders all the excruciating anguish and beauty of post-war Japan' Edmund WhiteWith the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father's first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers.Translated by Haydn Trowell
The Rainbow
Available in English for the very first time, a powerful, poignant novel about three half sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow Country.With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters-born to the same father but different mothers-struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father's first child-haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together-seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.
The Rainbow
With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father's first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers.
