Three stories of the ruined and the lost: Osamu Dazai at his most tormented.

Three stories of the ruined and the lost: Osamu Dazai at his most tormented.

This collection unearths the Japanese literary legend’s most controversial and exhilarating early-career writing with first-time and original translations.

“** Retrograde**” traces the life of an anguished youth in reverse; “** Das Gemeine**” features an aspiring literato with a dark past who hitches his wagon to an eccentric violinist; “** Blossom-Leaves and the Spirit Whistle**” tells of an old woman recalling the final breaths of her beautiful, sickly sister.

** Experience the twisted agony of the prose that propelled Dazai to the top of the literary world.**