Kappa

Available

Product Details

Price
$13.95  $12.97
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
Pages
96
Dimensions
5.33 X 8.06 X 0.25 inches | 0.23 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811232166

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About the Author

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) wrote over a hundred short stories and was considered a major author when he committed suicide at the age of thirty-five (just after finishing Kappa): one of Japan's most prestigious literary awards is named after him. Two of the stories from his collection Rashomon formed the basis of the award-winning film of the same title by Akira Kurosawa.
Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda is a literary translator. Born in Tokyo, raised in Texas, she currently resides in New York City.

Allison Markin Powell has been awarded grants from English PEN and the NEA, and the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Her other translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Fuminori Nakamura. She was the guest editor for the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders, served as cochair of the PEN America Translation Committee, and currently represents the committee on PEN's Board of Trustees. She maintains the database Japanese Literature in English and lives in New York.

Reviews

Kappa is a scathing satire of contemporary Japan...a welcome reintroduction to an important and often-overlooked classic by one of Japan's most important modern writers as it approaches the 100th anniversary of its publication.--Alison Fincher "Asian Review of Books"
Enchanting and sometimes terrifying--a certain restrained sorrow, a certain preference for the visual, a certain lightness of touch, seem to me essentially Japanese. Extravagance and horror are in his work, but never in his style, which is always crystal clear. Perhaps he was inspired by Swift's Yahoos [but] halfway through the story, Akutagawa forgets the satiric conventions: it hardly matters to him that the Kappa, who are water imps, turn into humans who talk about Marx, Darwin, or Nietzsche.--Jorge Luis Borges
One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works... The flow of his language is the best feature of Akutagawa's style. Never stagnant, it moves along like a living thing.--Haruki Murakami