This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.

No one really understands how we suffer. One day, when we're adults, we may come to recall this suffering, this misery, as silly and laughable, but how are we to get through the long, hateful period until then? No one bothers to teach us that.

 Osamu Dazai was a master raconteur who plumbed-in an addictive, easy style-the absurd complexities of life in a society whose expectations cannot be met without sacrificing one's individual ideals on the altar of conformity. The gravitational pull of ...

For the first time in English, Osamu Dazai’s hilariously comic and deeply moving prequel to No Longer Human

For fans of No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai's darkly bewitching novel about the small redemptions of being a pathetic, miserable writer