Author(s): Jun'ichiro Tanizaki; Bryan Karetnyk (Translator)

Short Stories | Translated fiction | Japan

A new selection and translation of short stories by a hugely prominent classic Japanese writer, filled with eroticism and fantasy

Review:
 'One of the greatest Japanese writers... his work explores the destructive power of erotic obsessions' - Guardian
'Junichiro Tanizaki may well prove to be the outstanding Japanese novelist of this century... It is through... detail plain in language, but poetic in conception, that the blood of Tanizaki's rich and mysterious art pulses' - Edmund White
'Japan's great modern novelist. Tanizaki created a lifelong series of ingenious variations on a dominant theme: the power of love to energize and destroy' - Chicago Tribune
'Tanizaki writes with an unabashed sensuality' - John Updike
'Tanizaki - like no other writer - mined the realm of forbidden fantasies. From subtle eroticism to full-blown pathology, he made poetry of pleasure and torment'' - Japan Times

Author Biography: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki is widely considered to be one of Japan's most important writers. Born in Tokyo in 1886, he began his literary career in 1909 and published numerous plays, essays, novels and short stories. His writing is characterised by ironic wit, subtle family dynamics and charged, fraught depictions of sexuality and identity. The prestigious Tanizaki Prize is named in his honour.