Death in Midsummer

Yukio Mishima

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Penguin
06 August 2024

Fiction & Literature; Classic fiction (pre c 1945); Short stories; Fiction in translation

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

Ten tales of loss and longing, from one one Japan's greatest writers

Bringing together Yukio Mishima's finest stories, this selection shows his extraordinary ability to depict a wide variety of human beings in moments of significance. A moonlit journey to fulfil a wish; a mother lost in mourning; a night of infidelity; and a young lieutenant who ends his life. Filled with rich description and luxurious beauty, these hauntingly beautiful short stories from one of Japan's greatest writers show the pull between duty and desire, ecstasy and death.

In the title story, 'Death in Midsummer', which is set at a beach resort, a triple tragedy becomes a cloud of doom that requires exorcising. In another, 'Patriotism', a young army officer and his wife choose a way of vindicating their belief in ancient values that is as violent as it is traditional; it prefigured his own death by seppuku in November 1970. There is a story in which the sad truth of the relationship between a businessman and his former mistress is revealed through a suggestion of the unknown, and another in which a working-class couple, touching in their simple love for each other, pursue financial security by rather shocking means.

By: Yukio Mishima
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 12mm
Weight: 158g
ISBN: 9780241678947
ISBN 10: 0241678943
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 06 August 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Yukio Mishima was born in 1925 in Tokyo, and is considered one of the Japan's most important writers. His books broke social boundaries and taboos at a time when Japan found itself in a state of rapid social change. His interests, besides writing, included body-building, acting and practising as a Samurai. In 1970 he attempted to start a military coup, which failed. Upon realizing this, Mishima performed seppuku, a ritual suicide, upon himself. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature three times.