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The Woman in the Dunes
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  • Published: 16 April 1991
  • ISBN: 9780679733782
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

The Woman in the Dunes

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 Nov 2006
Audiobook
18 Sept 2018
Paperback
16 Apr 1991
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VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTS A SELECTION OF MODERN JAPANESE CLASSICS
A classic of twentieth century Japanese fiction, this existential novel--which David Mitchell has called "devious, addictive.... Never less than compulsive"--tells of a man and a woman forced into cohabitation at the bottom of sand pit.

The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel.
 
After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman. Together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side at this Sisyphean task.
  • Published: 16 April 1991
  • ISBN: 9780679733782
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

Also by Kobo Abe

Secret Rendezvous
The Ruined Map
The Ark Sakura
The Face of Another
The Box Man
See all

Praise for The Woman in the Dunes

  • "Devious, addictive.... Never less than compulsive.... Abe is an accomplished stylist..." --David Mitchell
  • "Abe is the Japanese writer with the broadest international reputation." --The New York Times Book Review
  • "Abe follows with meticulous precision his hero's constantly shifting physical, emotional and psychological states. He also presents ... everyday existence in a sand pit with such compelling realism that these passages serve both to heighten the credibility of the bizarre plot and subtly increase the interior tensions of the novel." --The New York Times Book Review
  • "Some of Kobo Abe's readers will recall Kafka's manipulation of a nightmarish tyranny of the unknown, others Beckett's selection of sites like the sand pit ... as a symbol of the undignified human predicament." --Saturday Review