More than seven decades after they were first released, the dark novels of Osamu Dazai have become a publishing sensation, as a new generation of readers engage with his bleakness, humour and brilliance<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question that\u00a0Japanese literature has\u00a0been one of the outstanding successes for British bookshops in\u00a0recent years: in 2024 close to half of the bestselling translated fiction titles were from Japan. Much of\u00a0the Japanese fiction translated into English fits into broad categories \u2013 cats, crime, coffee shops \u2013 but one surprise bestseller stands alone.<\/p>\n
Sales of books by Osamu Dazai, who\u00a0killed himself in 1948 aged 38, have rocketed in the last few years. His\u00a0best-known novel, No Longer Human (1948), has sold more than 75,000 copies in\u00a0the UK alone. An\u00a0intense semi-autobiographical account\u00a0of one man\u2019s alienation, it was\u00a0the last work of\u00a0fiction completed before Dazai\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
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