No Longer Human

No Longer Human, by Osamu Dazai, is the second novel by one of Japan's leading postwar writers. It tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. As a consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun. Dazai's writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, and he has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Endorsements

"His world … suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, … but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." — Donald Keene