A 75th-anniversary edition of the classic Japanese novel of alienation
and the search for meaning and connection in the modern world, in its
first new English translation in more than sixty years--for fans of
Salinger, Camus, Sartre, Hesse, and the hit anime series Bungo Stray
Dogs, which features a character based on No Longer Human's author,
Osamu Dazai
A Penguin Classics Graphic Deluxe Edition
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. Oba Yozo's 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.
Semi-autobiographical, No Longer Human is the final completed work of
one of Japan's most important writers. It has come to "echo the
sentiments of youth" (The Mainichi Daily News) from post-war Japan to
the postmodern society of technology. Still one of the ten bestselling
books in Japan, No Longer Human is a powerful exploration of an
individual's alienation from society.
