The Woman in the Dunes
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Description
Niki Jumpei, an amateur entomologist, searches the scorching desert for beetles. As night falls he is forced to seek shelter in an eerie village, half-buried by huge sand dunes. He awakes to the terrifying realisation that the villagers have imprisoned him with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit. Tricked into slavery and threatened with starvation if he does not work, Jumpei's only chance is to shovel the ever-encroaching sand - or face an agonising death. Among the greatest Japanese novels of the twentieth century, The Woman in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel.
Kobo Abe (1924-93) was born in Tokyo, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. During his life Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been bestsellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man, and The Ruined Map.
If you liked The Woman in the Dunes, you might enjoy Albert Camus' The Plague, also available in Penguin Classics.
'A haunting Kafkaesque nightmare'
Time
Book Information
Posts
an absolutely wonderful and thought provoking story. I definitely need more time to think about everything that happened and read more about abe's intentions with this novel. this book leaves a lot open for interpretation, which I love. it also critiques society and modern relationships in a way I have never read before. -1 star for the very unnecessary cruel and disgusting way sexuality is portrayed. I get the intention, but in the scenes mentioned the woman is more of a puppet to be used than the actually interesting, multi-layered and even mystical person she is portrayed as otherwise.
Description
Niki Jumpei, an amateur entomologist, searches the scorching desert for beetles. As night falls he is forced to seek shelter in an eerie village, half-buried by huge sand dunes. He awakes to the terrifying realisation that the villagers have imprisoned him with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit. Tricked into slavery and threatened with starvation if he does not work, Jumpei's only chance is to shovel the ever-encroaching sand - or face an agonising death. Among the greatest Japanese novels of the twentieth century, The Woman in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel.
Kobo Abe (1924-93) was born in Tokyo, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. During his life Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been bestsellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man, and The Ruined Map.
If you liked The Woman in the Dunes, you might enjoy Albert Camus' The Plague, also available in Penguin Classics.
'A haunting Kafkaesque nightmare'
Time
Book Information
Posts
an absolutely wonderful and thought provoking story. I definitely need more time to think about everything that happened and read more about abe's intentions with this novel. this book leaves a lot open for interpretation, which I love. it also critiques society and modern relationships in a way I have never read before. -1 star for the very unnecessary cruel and disgusting way sexuality is portrayed. I get the intention, but in the scenes mentioned the woman is more of a puppet to be used than the actually interesting, multi-layered and even mystical person she is portrayed as otherwise.