For the first time in English, readers will be able to experience the early days of Japanese fiction¡¯s beloved bad boy.
Osamu Dazai¡¯s 1935 novella ¡°The Flowers of Buffoonery¡± shares a protagonist, the young, wannabe writer Yozo Oba, with the author¡¯s modern classic novel ¡°No Longer Human,¡± released more than 10 years later. Yet this is hardly an origin story of Dazai¡¯s troubled narrator. While both books closely mirror the tragedies in the author¡¯s life, the early novella strikes a lighter tone.

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