Kokoro

(Paperback)

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Description

In this melancholy and delicately written Japanese classic, a student befriends a reclusive elder at a beach resort, who he calls Sensei. As the two grow closer, Sensei remains unwilling to share the inner pain that has consumed his life and the shameful secret behind his monthly pilgrimages to a Tokyo cemetery. But when the student writes to Sensei after his graduation to seek out advice, the past rushes unbidden to the surface, and Sensei at last reveals the tale of romantic betrayal and unresolved guilt that led to his withdrawal from the world. Set at the end of the Meiji era and rife with subtle, psychological insight, Kokoro is one of Japan's bestselling novels of all time and a stunning meditation on the essence of loneliness.

Reviews

'Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature' - Haruki Murukami

'Kokoro is exactly what you would ask a novel to be... Soseki manipulates every detail with the same thrilling mastery'' - Spectator

'Sparsely populated, simple but perfect... it is a melancholy but stoical study in loneliness'' - Sunday Telegraph

'This elegant novel...suffuses the reader with a sense of old Japan' - Los Angeles Times

Author Bio

Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) was one of Japan's most prominent novelists of the Meiji Era. After studying in England on a government scholarship, Soseki began a career at Tokyo University as a scholar of English literature before later devoting himself to his writing. He is best known for his works I Am a Cat, Kusamakura, Botchan and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1,000-yen note.