Description: Fourteen tales selected from the breadth of Dazai's fabled career, some never before seen in English
Brief description: Ralph McCarthy has lived in Japan for almost two decades. He is the translator of two collections of stories by Osamu Dazai, "Self Portraits" and "Blue Bamboo," and of Ryu Murakami's novel 69.
Review Quotes: Ultimately, it is not individuals Dazai seemed to dislike but the constraints on personal and societal freedom that force people into falsehood. His characters despise that people can't be honest, and that they themselves can't either learn to be false or have the courage to break away.--Zito Madu "The Washington Post"