Fumiko Enchi Books

October 2, 1905 – November 12, 1986

Fumiko Enchi, the pen name of Fumiko Ueda, was a Japanese playwright and novelist of the Shōwa period. Her early exposure to diverse literatures and her grandmother's introduction to classic Japanese works profoundly shaped her literary voice. Inspired by theatrical traditions and a fascination with aestheticism, Enchi crafted narratives that delve into intricate human relationships and psychological depths. Her writing bridges classical Japanese literary heritage with a distinctly modern sensibility.

The waiting years
204 pages
8 hours of reading
4.1(168)Add rating
Published for the first time in the UK, one of Japan's greatest modern female writers In the late nineteenth century, Tomo, the faithful wife of a government official, is sent to Tokyo, where a heartbreaking task is awaiting her. From among hundreds of geishas and daughters offered up for sale by their families she must select a respectable young girl to become her husband's new lover. Externally calm, but torn apart inside, Tomo dutifully begins the search for an official mistress. The Waiting Years was awarded Japan's most prestigious literary award, the Noma Prize.
Masks
156 pages
6 hours of reading
3.7(2587)Add rating
'Clear and powerful' (Kirkus), Masks is perhaps Fumiko Enchi's finest work and her first to be translated into English. In this stunning and subtle novel about seduction and infidelity in latter-day Japan and about the destructive force of feminine jealousy and resentment, Mieko Togano, a handsome and cultivated woman in her 50s, manipulates--for her own bizarre purposes--the relationship between her widowed daughter-in-law, Yasuko, and the two men in love with her.

The waiting years

Masks