The Setting Sun (9784805318096)

"Dazai's best novel […] focusing on a woman forced to deal with the consequences of heedless, Dazai-like behavior." —The New York Times

"Carpenter conveys Dazai's discordant voices while sweeping away some of the rhetorical cobwebs of Donald Keene's 1956 translation and its dated introduction, making this the definitive edition of an epochal classic of postwar Japan for a new generation." —Library Journal

A completely new translation of one of Osamu Dazai's best-loved novels, by award-winning translator, Juliet Winters Carpenter.

The Setting Sun tells the story of Kazuko, a strong-willed young woman from an aristocratic family that has fallen into poverty since the war. The book follows Kazuko's journey as she and her family struggle to adapt to the harsh new conditions of a Japan destroyed by American fire-bombings. In addition to having to move from the city to the countryside, where she has to work in the fields to support her family, she has to deal with a divorce, her mother's illness, and the return of her drug-addicted brother from the army.

An inspiring portrait of one woman's determination to survive in a society in the grip of a social and moral crisis, this classic work will appeal to those with an interest in modern Japanese literature as well as to those familiar with Osamu Dazai from the popular manga and anime series Bungo Stray Dogs, where he is the lead character.


About the Author:
Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was the pen name of Shuji Tsushima, the tenth of eleven children born to a wealthy landowner and politician in the far north of Japan. Dazai studied French literature at the University of Tokyo, but never received a degree. He first attracted attention in 1933 when magazines began to publish his work. Between 1930 and 1937, he made three suicide attempts, a subject he deals with in many of his short stories. Despite his troubled life and rebellious spirit, Dazai wrote in simple and colloquial style, conveying his personal torments through literature. Dazai's life ended early in a double suicide with a married lover.

Juliet Winters Carpenter (1948-2026) was an award-winning American translator of modern Japanese fiction. Born in Ann Arbor, Carpenter studied Japanese at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. She was Professor Emerita at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto. Her work won numerous awards, including the Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1980 and 2014-2015. In 2022 she was awarded the Lindsay and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for a lifetime of achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature. Her translations of Japan's greatest writers, including Kobo Abe, Fumiko Enchi, Minae Mizumura, and Osamu Dazai, remain an enduring legacy in the world of Japanese literature.