No Longer Human - by Osamu Dazai (Paperback)

About the Book

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. His 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.

Book Synopsis

A completely new translation of Osamu Dazai's great masterpiece by award-winning translator Juliet Winters Carpenter.

"A journey to hell with Osamu Dazai, Japan's ultimate bad boy novelist" --Damian Flanagan, The Japan Times

No Longer Human is the story of Yozo Oba, who, from early childhood, finds it impossible to form meaningful relationships with family or friends. As a child he copes by acting the fool--mocking himself while entertaining others. As an adult he turns to alcohol, sex and drugs, which lead to his eventual self-destruction.

Originally written in 1948 and based closely on Dazai's own life, the timeless and universal themes of social alienation, failure and one man's inner torture at his inability to feel like a normal human still resonate with young people everywhere, making this an enduring international classic.

This contemporary translation will be welcomed by all fans of modern Japanese literature as well as by readers familiar with Osamu Dazai. After Soseki Natsume, Osamu Dazai is Japan's most popular writer. Dazai is enjoying a surge in interest among young people today thanks to the success of the manga, anime and film series Bungo Stray Dogs, whose protagonist, a detective named Osamu Dazai, is based on the real-life author.

"Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras." --Andrew Martin, The New York Times

Review Quotes

"Since about the time of Osamu Dazai's death in 1948, the publishing firm of Tuttle has been instrumental in bringing translations of Japanese literature and culture into forms suitable for the English-speaking audience." --ICv2

"This contemporary translation will be welcomed by all fans of modern Japanese literature as well as by readers familiar with Dazai." -- Rafu Shimpo

"[No Longer Human] is remarkable...What makes it so in part is its utterly beguiling frankness, a frankness that somehow avoids bitterness and self-pity while not lacking in rancor or humor." --Peter Selgin, award-winning author and illustrator, for Craft Literary magazine

"Today, such a writer might be castigated, condemned and turned into an instant pariah: Perhaps his books would be taken from bookshops. Yet when Osamu Dazai's short, electrifying novel, "Ningen Shikkaku" (No Longer Human) was published in 1948, it triggered a huge "Dazai Boom."..." --Damian Flanagan, The Japan Times: "A journey to hell with Osamu Dazai, Japan's ultimate bad boy novelist"

The Cult Classic That Captures the Stress of Social Alienation... The Japanese novelist Osamu Dazai wrote, better than almost anyone, about the thin line between isolation and belonging." --Jane Yong Kim, The Atlantic

"Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment...and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras." -- Andrew Martin, The New York Times

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 is 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 is Professor Emeritas at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto. Her work has 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. She and her husband live on Whidbey Island in Washington State with two of their sons and their dog, Winter.