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Kappa
Reader Score
76%
76% of readers
recommend this book
Akutagawa's Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a madman in a lunatic asylum: he recounts how, while out hiking in Kamikochi, he spots a Kappa. He decides to chase it and, like Alice pursuing the White Rabbit, he tumbles down a hole, out of the human world and into the realm of the Kappas. There he is well looked after, in fact almost made a pet of: as a human, he is a novelty. He makes friends and spends his time learning about their world, exploring the seemingly ridiculous ways of the Kappa, but noting many--not always flattering--parallels to Japanese mores regarding morality, legal justice, economics, and sex. Alas, when the patient eventually returns to the human world, he becomes disgusted by humanity and, like Gulliver missing the Houyhnhnms, he begins to pine for his old friends the Kappas, rather as if he has been forced to take leave of Toad of Toad Hall...
Book Details
- Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
- Publish Date: Jun 6th, 2023
- Pages: 96
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.06in - 5.33in - 0.25in - 0.23lb
- EAN: 9780811232166
- Categories: • Literary• Classics• World Literature - Japan
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About the Author
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What people are saying
We're all the contemplatives of an ongoing apocalypse. —Etel Adnan
New @NewDirections: Kappa, the final novel by one of my favorite writers, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, in a new translation from the Japanese by @lhkuroda and Allison Markin Powell: https://t.co/U3Fd8Gu7hw. Here's the opening: https://t.co/BHimST82BC
#WorldKidLit #WIT #IntlYALit #GLLITranslatedYABookPrize Shop here: https://t.co/05wWiJotMk
Kappa, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, tr. by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda & Allison Markin Powell. Akutagawa’s magical final work is a short novel with a magic spell all its own—poignant, fantastical, wry, melancholic, and witty. #JapaneseLit #AbsurdistLit https://t.co/7pUDoLAvxe
Founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, New Directions proudly publishes great literature from around the world.
On Thursday at 7pm at @yuandmebooks, we'll be honoring KAPPA by Ryunosuke Akutagawa with expert translators @lhkuroda and Allison Markin Powell. Come by to celebrate this wild book with us! https://t.co/4GfieDWIQJ https://t.co/J96Fe4hVvq
Praise for this book
What people are saying
We're all the contemplatives of an ongoing apocalypse. —Etel Adnan
New @NewDirections: Kappa, the final novel by one of my favorite writers, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, in a new translation from the Japanese by @lhkuroda and Allison Markin Powell: https://t.co/U3Fd8Gu7hw. Here's the opening: https://t.co/BHimST82BC
#WorldKidLit #WIT #IntlYALit #GLLITranslatedYABookPrize Shop here: https://t.co/05wWiJotMk
Kappa, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, tr. by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda & Allison Markin Powell. Akutagawa’s magical final work is a short novel with a magic spell all its own—poignant, fantastical, wry, melancholic, and witty. #JapaneseLit #AbsurdistLit https://t.co/7pUDoLAvxe