Kokoro (Penguin Classics) by Natsume Soseki

“Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature.”—Haruki Murakami

The father of modern Japanese literature's best-loved novel, in its first new English translation in half a century

No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death. Published here in the first new translation in more than fifty years, Kokoro—meaning "heart"—is the story of a subtle and poignant friendship between two unnamed characters, a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls "Sensei."

Haunted by tragic secrets that have cast a long shadow over his life, Sensei slowly opens up to his young disciple, confessing indiscretions from his own student days that have left him reeling with guilt, and revealing, in the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between his moral anguish and his student's struggle to understand it, the profound cultural shift from one generation to the next that characterized Japan in the early twentieth century.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics

Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 23, 2010

Edition ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143106031

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9780143106036

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.4 ounces

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.36 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches