Text in English, Japanese. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 333 p. Audience: General/trade. Slight Use Wear, SPINE n PAGES CLEAN CRISP n TIGHT ** LIKE NEW **

Text in English, Japanese. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 333 p. Audience: General/trade. Slight Use Wear, SPINE n PAGES CLEAN CRISP n TIGHT ** LIKE NEW **

TRANSLATED BY JULIET WINTERS CARPENTER / A CROSS BETWEEN KAFKA AND "ALICE IN

TRANSLATED BY JULIET WINTERS CARPENTER / A CROSS BETWEEN KAFKA AND "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" BOOK IS FINE WITHOUT ANY MARKS TO THE BINDING OR THE TEXT OTHER THAN A X-MAS INSCRIPTION TO THE FRONT FREE ENDPAPER. D.J. IS FINE AND IS NOT PRICE-CLIPPED. A BEAUTIFUL CLEAN, BRIGHT, UNFADED COPY WITH NO REMAINDER MARK.

New York. 1988. March 1988. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in

New York. 1988. March 1988. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0394558367. Translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter. 341 pages. hardcover. Jacket photograph & design by Dan Lloyd taylor. keywords: Asia Japan Literature Translated World Literature. DESCRIPTION-A novel about the lives of outcasts in modern Japan which addresses such themes as ecological destruction, old age, violence and nuclear war. From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY-Abe's first novel in eight years, an allegorical fantasy at once Kafkaesque, funny and apocalpytic dazzles even when it may confuse. The principal character, nicknamed Mole, has converted a huge underground quarry into an ark capable of surviving the coming nuclear holocaust and is now in search of his 'crew. ' He falls victim, however, to the wiles of his first crew members, a con man-cum-insect dealer and his two shills, one of them a pretty young woman. In the surreal drama that ensues, the ark is invaded by a gang of youths and a sinister group of elderly people called the Broom Brigade, led by Mole's odious father, while Mole gets his leg trapped in the ark's central piece of equipment, a giant toilet powerful enough to flush almost anything, including chopped-up humans, out to sea. Kobo Abe (THE WOMAN IN THE DUNES, THE BOX MAN), generally considered Japan's leading novelist, is a literary magician with a very special bag of tricks. Among them is a deadpan matter-of-factness that gives his chilling vision of human destiny much of its impact. inventory #9787.