THE FLOWERS OF BUFFOONERY (New Directions, 96 pp., paperback, $14.95), a 1935 novella newly translated by Sam Bett, features an earlier version of Yozo and explores Dazai’s usual concerns in a ...

In Osamu Dazai’s 1948 cult-classic novel, No Longer Human, which turns 75 this year, the protagonist Yozo Oba might bring some of these characters to mind as he whiles away his days in 1930s Tokyo.

The Japanese novelist’s dark-hearted comedies are at once unhinged and brilliant. Osamu Dazai, 1924. Where to begin the story? It’s tempting to start at the end—on the morning of Osamu Dazai ...

Osamu Dazai, trans. from the Japanese by Sam Bett. New Directions, $14.95 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-0-8112-3454-2 This beguiling novella from Dazai (1909–1948) revisits the protagonist from the ...

Schoolgirl (Joseito, ?) by Japanese novelist and a master storyteller Osamu Dazai, is a short fictional story which kicked off the authors career. The 1933 book, being reissued in a new ...