Ralph F. McCarthy Book order (chronological)

This collection of 14 tales - a half-dozen of which have never before appeared in English - is based on a Japanese collection of, as Dazai described them, "soliloquies by female narrators." Osamu Dazai was a master raconteur who plumbed - in an addictive, easy style - the absurd complexities of life in a society whose expectations cannot be met without sacrificing one's individual ideals on the altar of conformity. The gravitational pull of his prose is on full display in these stories. The collection includes the quietly brilliant long story "Schoolgirl" and shows the fiction of this 20th-century genius in a fresh light.

The shocking psycho-thriller behind the cult Japanese horror film

From postmodern Renaissance man Ryu Murakami, master of the psychothriller and director of Tokyo Decadence, comes this hair-raising roller-coaster ride through the nefarious neon-lit world of Tokyo's sex industryIt's just before New Year, and Frank, an American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But, Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Illustrated in film cartoon style to appeal to younger readers, this text contains eight traditional Japanese folk tales for young readers.This book contains following tales: The One-Straw MillionaireHow the Old Man Lost His WenSleepy TaroThe Ramshackle LeakIkkyu-sanThe God of PovertyThe Windy BrideHikoichi and the Tanuki

Bringing together novelist Osamu Dazai's best autobiographical shorts in a single, slim volume, Self-Portraits shows the legendary writer at his best--and worst