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Thirst for Love

Thirst for Love

Summary

Etsuko is a trapped woman who lays traps for others...

After the early death of her philandering husband, Etsuko moves into her father-in-law's house, where she numbly submits to the old man's advances. Meanwhile she develops feelings for the handsome eighteen-year-old servant Saburo. Tormented by his indifference, yet invigorated by her desire, she makes one last, catastrophic bid for his attention.

'A sensuous, absorbing study of overriding obsession' Kirkus

'One of the outstanding writers of the world' New York Times

Reviews

  • Japan's foremost man of letters
    Spectator

About the author

Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor – the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless short stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he acted. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves; Enjo, which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion; and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst For Love and the short-story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship.

The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On November 25th, 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.
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