Kóbó Abe Knihy

Žena z dún je fantastickým príbehom entomológa, ktorý sa vyberie na odľahlé morské pobrežie hľadať vzácny druh hmyzu. Zablúdi do oblasti dún, kde sú celé dediny ohrozené pieskom. Obyvatelia jednej dediny vlákajú muža ako vzácnu pracovnú silu do hlbokej jamy — v nej býva v schátranom domčeku mladá žena. Jej život pozostáva len z úmornej driny, pretože musí každú noc odpratávať naviaty piesok...

Černá komedie o třinácti obrazech – takřka kafkovská noční můra o člověku násilně vystaveném „objetí zdánlivě milující rodiny“. Autor získal za toto drama v roce 1967 Tanizakiho cenu.

One of the premier Japanese novels of the twentieth century, The Women in the Dunes combines the essence of myth, suspense, and the existential novel. In a remote seaside village, Niki Jumpei, a teacher and amateur entomologist, is held captive with a young woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit where, Sisyphus-like, they are pressed into shoveling off the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten the village.

The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident - a man who has lost his face and, with it, connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him. His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such mask is more than a disguise.

Soubor povídek japonského povídkáře, romanopisce, dramatika, esejisty, nejvýraznějšího představitele poválečné školy (sengoha) a také vystudovaného lékaře. Zabýval se předválečnou avantgardou, zejména surrealismem. Ve své práci si volí fantastické náměty a používá postupů vědecko-fantastické literatury ve spojení se současnou realitou. Mezi jeho časté náměty také patří metamorfóza člověka – zde např. v povídkách Červený kokon a Kouzelná křída.Povídky:• Smrt neznámého (無関係な死 [Mukankei na shi] An Irrelevant Death)• Olověné vejce (鉛の卵 [Namari no tamago] The Egg of Pb)• Legenda o mořské panně ([Ningyoden] The Tale of the Mermaid)• Hůl (棒 [Bō] The Stick)• Kouzelná křída (魔法のチョーク[Mahō no chōku] The Magic Chalk)• Osud básníka (詩人の生涯 [Shijin no shōgai] The Life of a Poet)• Vetřelci (闖入者 [Chinnyūsha] Intruders)• Dendrocacalia (デンドロカカリヤ [Dendorokakariya] Dendrocacalia)• Červený kokon (赤い繭 [Akai mayu] The Red Cocoon)Z japonských originálů podle různých vydání vybrala, přeložila a doslov „O autorovi“ napsala Vlasta Winkelhöferová.Obálku navrhl Milan Grygar.Graficky upravila Ludmila Zapletalová.Edice: Malá řada soudobé světové prózy.Náklad 2 000 výtisků.ISBN: 01-038-71.

In the aftermath of World War II, a Japanese youth raised in the puppet state of Manchuria struggles to return home to Japan. What follows is a wild journey involving drugs, smuggling, chases, and capture. Beasts Head for Home is an acute novel of identity, belonging, and the vagaries of human behavior from an exceptional modern Japanese author.

Three plays by one of contemporary Japan's most prominent writers-Involuntary Homicide, The Green Stockings, The Ghost is Here-translated for this volume reveal Kobo Abe's deep love of absurdity in the face of universal concerns.

"Abe Kobo tackled contemporary social issues and literary theory with the depth and facility of a visionary thinker."--Jacket cover.

Kobo Abe, the internationally acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes, combines wildly imaginative fantasies and naturalistic prose to create narratives reminiscent of the work of Kafka and Beckett.In this eerie and evocative masterpiece, the nameless protagonist gives up his identity and the trappings of a normal life to live in a large cardboard box he wears over his head. Wandering the streets of Tokyo and scribbling madly on the interior walls of his box, he describes the world outside as he sees or perhaps imagines it, a tenuous reality that seems to include a mysterious rifleman determined to shoot him, a seductive young nurse, and a doctor who wants to become a box man himself. The Box Man is a marvel of sheer originality and a bizarrely fascinating fable about the very nature of identity.Translated from the Japanese by E. Dale Saunders.

In the last novel written before his death in 1993, one of Japan's most distinguished novelists proffered a surreal vision of Japanese society that manages to be simultaneously fearful and jarringly funny. The narrator of Kangaroo Notebook wakes on morning to discover that his legs are growing radish sprouts, an ailment that repulses his doctor but provides the patient with the unusual ability to snack on himself. In short order, Kobo Abe's unraveling protagonist finds himself hurtling in a hospital bed to the very shores of hell. Abe has assembled a cast of oddities into a coherent novel, one imbued with unexpected meaning. Translated from the Japanese by Maryellen Toman Mori.

Of all the great Japanese novelists, Kobe Abe was indubitably the most versatile. With The Ruined Map, he crafted a mesmerizing literary crime novel that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the psychological depth of Dostoevsky.Mr. Nemuro, a respected salesman, disappeared over half a year ago, but only now does his alluring yet alcoholic wife hire a private eye. The nameless detective has but two clues: a photo and a matchbook. With these he embarks upon an ever more puzzling pursuit that leads him into the depths of Tokyo’s dangerous underworld, where he begins to lose the boundaries of his own identity. Surreal, fast-paced, and hauntingly dreamlike, Abe’s masterly novel delves into the unknowable mysteries of the human mind.Translated from the Japanese by E. Dale Saunders.

From the acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes comes Secret Rendezvous, the bizarrely erotic and comic adventures of a man searching for his missing wife in a mysteriously vast underground hospital. From the moment that an ambulance appears in the middle of the night to take his wife, who protests that she is perfectly healthy, her bewildered husband realizes that things are not as they should be. His covert explorations reveal that the enormous hospital she was taken to is home to a network of constant surveillance, outlandish sex experiments, and an array of very odd and even violent characters. Within a few days, though no closer to finding his wife, the unnamed narrator finds himself appointed the hospital’s chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he’s a horse. With its nightmarish vision of modern medicine and modern life, Secret Rendezvous is another masterpiece from Japan’s most gifted and original writer of serious fiction.

'A gorgeously entertaining, provocative book' Chicago Tribune It is 4am when the ambulance comes to take the man's wife away - although no-one has called it, and there is nothing wrong with her. As he sets out to find her, he finds himself in the corridors of a vast underground hospital, where he encounters sinister medics, freakish sexual experiments and the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Even when he is suddenly appointed as the hospital's chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he is a horse, he will not give up his search. Secret Rendezvous is a nightmarish satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life. 'Reads as if it were the collaborative effort of Hieronymus Bosch, Franz Kafka and Mel Brooks' Chicago Sun Times

A recluse who, convinced that the world will end soon, takes up residence in an abandoned mine and then attempts to sell tickets to his 'ark' to people he deems worthy of saving from the apocalypse

( Phantastische Bibliothek, 65). Neu: 9196 323

Die vierte Zwischeneiszeit, ein realistischer Science-fiction-Roman, der erzählt, wie schnell wissenschaftliche Macht in Ohnmacht umschlägt in einer Zukunft der unbegrenzten Manipulierbarkeit der biologischen Erbmasse.

Один энтомолог-любитель, взяв на работе небольшой отпуск, отправляется на побережье в поисках интересных экземпляров для своей коллекции. Наткнувшись на прибрежную деревню, он решается в ней переночевать, чтобы наутро продолжить свои изыскания и вернуться домой. Наступил новый день, а с ним и проблемы, обнаружить которые наш энтомолог никак не ожидал...

Der letzte Roman des 1992 verstorbenen japanischen Autors Kobo Abe thematisiert Einsamkeit, Entfremdung und Identitätsverlust. Der namenlose Ich-Erzähler, ein Büroangestellter mit einer seltsamen Krankheit, begibt sich auf eine magische Reise durch nächtliches Tokio und verschiedene surrealistische Orte, bis er in einem Krankenhaus landet.