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This central masterpiece of modern Japanese literature recounts the decline and fall of a couple’s fortunes and a husband’s desperate attempt to find spiritual salvation.

‘A sensitive, skillfully written novel by the most widely read Japanese author of modern times.’ – Guardian

Deemed the ‘representative modern Japanese novelist’ by Haruki Murakami, Natsume Soseki employs humor and irony with masterful precision in this great novel of indecision, widely considered one of the founding texts of modern Japanese letters.

Humble clerk Sosuke and his wife Oyone live in a modest house at the bottom of a cliff. Having previously been married to another man, Oyone’s adultery now seems to hang over their marriage like a curse. With no children and Sosuke’s incoming growing ever smaller, they are left with little besides each other and a beautiful painted screen as a souvenir of better days.

Then a series of crises rocks their shabby but harmonious domestic existence. Sosuke’s brother moves in with them, demanding help to fund his studies; they find themselves forced to sell the screen to buy winter shoes; and Oyone’s ex-husband is rumoured to be visiting a wealthy neighbour at the top of the cliff. On top of that, Sosuke’s financial prospects keep getting worse. Beset by reminders of his flaws and failures, Sosuke runs away to a temple, hoping to escape into enlightenment. But can he learn what the monks have to teach him? Will he return to Oyone changed – or not at all?