House of the Sleeping Beauties

In the three long tales in this collection, Yasunari Kawabata examines the boundaries between fantasy & reality in the minds of three lonely men. Piercing examinations of sexuality & human psychology—and works of remarkable subtlety & beauty—these stories showcase one of the twentieth century’s great writers—in any language—at his very best. 

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Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka in 1899. In 1968 he became the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of Japan’s most distinguished novelists, he published his first stories while he was still in high school, graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924. His short story “The Izu Dancer,” first published in 1925, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1955. 

Kawabata authored numerous novels, including Snow Country (1956), which cemented his reputation as one of the preeminent voices of his time, as well as Thousand Cranes (1959), The Sound of the Mountain (1970), The Master of Go (1972), and Beauty & Sadness (1975). He served as the chairman of the P.E.N. Club of Japan for several years & in 1959 he was awarded the Goethe Medal in Frankfurt. Kawabata died in 1972.