Fiction in Translation

From the creator of the hit television show The Killing, a nail-biting debut - a stylish and atmospheric thriller that follows the race to find a serial killer terrorising Copenhagen. The police make a terrible discovery in a suburb of Copenhagen. A young woman has been killed and dumped at a playground. One of her hands has been cut off,...

Spring Snow is the first novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Set in Tokyo, 1912, the closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders—rich provincial families, a new and powerful elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family—members of the waning aristocracy—but he is not one of them. Coming...

"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...

"Mieko Kawakami is a genius" - Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times From international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami comes All the Lovers in the Night, an extraordinary, deeply moving and insightful story set in contemporary Tokyo. Fuyuko Irie is a freelance proofreader in her thirties. Living alone, and unable to form meaningful relationships, she has little contact with anyone other...

The Trial is Kafka's gripping work of psychological horror, featuring a new introduction and notes by Carolin Duttlinger. This terrifying psychological journey follows Joseph K., an ordinary man who unexpectedly finds himself accused of a crime he did not commit. The nature of this crime is never revealed to him. After his arrest, he is released but must report to...

For fans of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, She and Her Cat, and The Goodbye Cat - this huge international sensation with a touch of magical realism tells of a mysterious clinic where cats are prescribed to heal its ailing patients. For fans of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, discover the award-winning Japanese sensation - a charming celebration of the healing power...

In Tokyo, there is a neighbourhood with the highest number of bookstores in the world. It is called Jinbocho where book lovers can browse to their heart's delight and where hunters of first editions or autographed copies prowl the bookcases. The Morisaki bookshop, a small family-run shop, is so packed with books that barely five people can fit inside. Books...

What does the way you spend a small amount of money say about your life? In How to Use 3,000 Yen, Hika Harada weaves a warm, wise and deeply relatable story of three generations of women navigating love, work, family—and the quiet anxieties of money. From a young woman confronting the fragility of financial independence, to a mother managing a...

New Statesman Fiction Book of the Year 2025A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2025A New York Times Notable Book of 2025A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025A Guardian Translated Book of the Year 2025An Observer Book of the Year 2025'Supple, horrifying and mordantly droll' New York Times'Nothing short of brilliant' Wall Street Journal'A subtle, often darkly funny novel...

Published in English for the first time, this is the third book in the Maxton Hall trilogy and the inspiration for the NUMBER ONE AMAZON PRIME TV series! Pre-order the third book in Mona Kasten's MAXTON HALL series - the multi-million copy international bestselling series. Read the series that inspired the Amazon Prime TV show!

The third novel in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, a true global sensation – now in a gorgeous, decorative special edition. On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that’s not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its...

'Fresh, fearless, faithful and original. One of the great crime series of our time could not be in safer, more capable hands' Chris Whitaker Discover Lisbeth Salander - one of the most memorable female characters in all crime fiction. Spring returns to Sweden's far north, but darkness lies at the heart of the small town of Gasskas. Natural resources in...

This series of war novels from Vintage Classics presents eight powerful stories about the horror and waste of war—each a passionate plea to prevent its repetition. Bitter and impassioned, The Tin Drum delivers a scathing dissection of Germany and Poland under the Nazis. On his third birthday, Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and...

An explosive stand-alone thriller about family, loyalty, and the lengths people will go to cling on to power, from the Sunday Times number one bestselling author Jo Nesbo. FAMILY COMES FIRST. NO MATTER THE COST. 'A 100% buy-today-read-tonight delight' - LEE CHILD 'Bracingly and bleakly funny' - Telegraph Brothers Carl and Roy Opgard have succeeded in life. Or at least...

By the author of Lonely Castle in the Mirror - first of a major multi-book launch into English for a huge Japanese fiction brand. The unforgettable million-copy Japanese bestseller by the author of Lonely Castle in the Mirror Readers are obsessed: 'Every word resonated in my heart' * Reader review 'Perfect for anyone who loves to think deeply about what...

New to Penguin Black Classics, the fully annotated edition of Mireille Ribière's acclaimed translation. Rumours that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House, wreaking havoc, have long been rife among staff and performers. This Phantom also haunts the imagination of the beautiful and talented singer Christine Daaé, appearing to her as the 'Angel of...

A gorgeously crafted book within a book about literature, purpose, and what it is to belong by the much-loved author of The Cat and The City. A completely heartwarming novel about the power of books and connection between generations, perfect for fans of The Lost Bookshop. From the author of The Cat and The City, a BBC Radio 2 Book...

In The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas crafts an enduring tale of betrayal, hope, and redemption, set against the vibrant backdrop of early 19th-century France. Follow the extraordinary journey of Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who is wrongly imprisoned on the eve of his wedding. This captivating novel takes readers through his harrowing experiences in the forbidding Château d'If,...

One of the greatest classics of Chinese literature One of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Monkey King was written anonymously during the Ming dynasty and is most commonly attributed to Wu Cheng'en, the son of a silk-shop clerk from east China. It recounts a Tang-dynasty monk's quest for Buddhist scriptures, accompanied by an omni-talented kung-fu Monkey King called Sun Wukong;...

The first English print edition of a Korean smash-hit web novel. Most fairytales end with a wedding and a happily-ever-after - but this is no fairytale. The updated and official translation of Under the Oak Tree, the #1 webnovel on MANTA, continues in this second volume. As her first winter in Anatol turns to spring, Lady Maximilian finds herself confronting...

‘Illuminating … beautifully’ LYDIA KIESLING ‘I loved it’ ANNA HOGELAND ‘Intimate, searing’ RAMONA AUSUBEL A cult feminist hit in South Korea, Hello Baby is a gripping and intimate portrait of motherhood, fertility and womanhood for fans of Butter and Breasts and Eggs. Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books I am a ridiculous man. They call me mad now. That would be a promotion in rank. A delusional man whose strange dream changes his life; a self-justifying husband who causes his wife's suicide; a witness to a young girl's ruin; a writer who stretches out on a gravestone and listens...

The first English print edition of a Korean smash-hit web novel. Most fairytales end with a wedding and a happily-ever-after - but this is no fairytale. The updated and official translation of Under the Oak Tree, the #1 webnovel on MANTA, continues in this third volume. The day that Lady Maximilian has been dreading is here- after an arduous journey...

A beautiful clothbound edition of Miguel de Cervantes' mock-epic masterwork, Don Quixote. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading romances of chivalry that he determines to become...

What if you could turn the pages of your own life, like the pages of your favourite book? Somewhere along the ordinary alleys you pass by every day, a mysterious shop appears between all the other familiar buildings. Surely, you didn't see it yesterday or the day before. A large sign reads The Moon Glow Bookshop but it seems to...

His father could find what was lost. His father knew when someone was going to die. His father had talked to him about the dead who rode in on the wind. The dead travel fast. Gaspar is six years old when the Order first come for him. For years, they have exploited his father's ability to commune with the dead...

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A MAN CALLED OVE, NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING TOM HANKS Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, this novel will charm and delight anyone who has ever had a grandmother. 'A touching, sometimes funny, often wise portrait of grief' Kirkus Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house. Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother...

Our narrator is a humble and solitary postal worker whose life takes an unexpected turn when he receives devastating news: he has only months to live. Estranged from his family and living alone with his cat, Cabbage, he is abruptly confronted with the brevity of his existence. As he grapples with his diagnosis, an unusual encounter occurs. The Devil visits...

A wonderfully comforting novel of family, food, and belonging from a Korean bestseller - the perfect read for fans of The Dallergut Dream Department Store and The Midnight Library. When twenty-seven-year-old Yeon-hwa loses her grandmother, the enigmatic proprietor of A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang, she decides to respect her wishes by keeping the store going for at least a...

Cixin Liu is the author of your next favourite sci-fi novel WIRED On his fourteenth birthday, right before his eyes, Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning. Striving to make sense of this bizarre tragedy, he dedicates his life to a single goal: to unlock the secrets of this enigmatic natural phenomenon. His pursuit of ball lightning...

The breathtaking new novel about the boundaries between worlds and individuals, from the internationally bestselling author of 1Q84. Step into the City When a young man's girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its...

A major, retrospective launch of Roberto Bolaño's work - now published as a Vintage Classics author for the first time. Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix is dying. A priest, a member of Opus Dei, a literary critic and a poet, in his feverish delirium the crucial events of his past swell around him. From glimpses of the great poet Pablo Neruda,...

The first modern dystopian novel which inspired both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. Special futuristic 3D cover edition! Comes with 3D glasses! As relevant today as when it was first published, We is the first modern dystopian novel which inspired both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. The citizens of the One State live in a condition of 'mathematically...

Embark on a poignant journey through time with Tales from the Cafe, the enchanting sequel in Toshikazu Kawaguchi's million-copy bestselling series. Tucked away in a quaint Tokyo alley, a mysterious cafe offers more than just a finely brewed cup of coffee—it presents its patrons with the extraordinary opportunity to travel back in time. Bound by a handful of peculiar rules,...

In The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami masterfully weaves a collection of often surreal and always thought-provoking short stories that challenge the boundaries of reality and everyday life. Through his signature blend of the magical and the mundane, Murakami crafts a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the unreal becomes familiar. These stories delve into the lives of seemingly average...

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson is a breathtaking coming-of-age love story set in 1980s France, capturing the heart and soul of youthful passion. This evocative novel begins just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, where Philippe, now a famous writer, encounters a young man who uncannily resembles his first love. This encounter prompts a powerful journey back to Philippe's teenage...

Elegant novellas-in-translation, VINTAGE EDITIONS celebrate the audacity and ambition of the written word, transporting readers to wherever in the world literary innovation may be found. From the author of The Memory Police "A conspicuously gifted writer...To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare, and her stories continue to haunt. She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie...

An enchanting clothbound edition of the essential tales drawn from the acclaimed translation of The Arabian Nights. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Every night for three years, the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with...

Every winter, in the days leading up to Christmas, Benedikt walks into the snowy mountains of Iceland to rescue sheep lost in the blizzards. With his dog and his ram by his side, traversing wild snowstorms and crystalline nights, fuelled by endless cups of hot coffee, Benedikt dedicates himself to helping other living beings in need. It is midwinter in...

Tell me, do you know why the most beautiful love stories must always end badly?On a scruffy resort island off the coast of France, six teenagers—five boys and one girl—band together for a final golden season. Their days are drenched in sun and freedom, and their nights simmer with secrets, jealousy, and longing. Philippe is drawn to Nicolas, the quiet...

From the authentic and original healing fiction author of Travelling Cat Chronicles comes a 1.4-million-copy bestseller - set in a famously scenic railway line in Japan, following key emotional dramas for five commuters. Discover your next feel-good Japanese novel, by the author of The Travelling Cat Chronicles Over 1.4 million copies sold in Japan 'You will be wrapped in laughter...

"Murder mystery fans and cat lovers get ready for an iconic new series" Janice Hallet "Think Agatha Christie with claws" A.J. Finn "You can absolutely see why Jiro Akagawa is such a staple of Japanese crime fiction" Kristen Perrin Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and... women. When a young female student is found...

A musical prodigy and his mother spend years searching for each other in this beautiful, sweeping novel of hope, perseverance, and love, from Jenna Bush Hager's Thousand Voices imprint. Song is a nobody—just a food delivery worker from a village in Northeastern China—but her son, River, is a little wonder. At the age of three, he toddled to a piano...

Based on the true story of a Jewish barman-cum-spy who served the Nazis in the Ritz Paris during occupation - for fans of Anthony Doerr and Amor Towles. An Immediate Bestseller | A Bloomberg Best Book of 2025 ‘Philippe Collin is a magnificent storyteller. This novel fascinates at every turn.’ - _Elle_ When the Ritz becomes the Nazis' favourite spot,...

New to Penguin Modern Classics One of the premier Japanese novels in the twentieth century, The Woman 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 they are...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady offers tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature. "The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house."

In a new translation by Ronald Wilks Notes from Underground (1864) is a study of a single character, "the real man of the Russian majority," and a revelation of Dostoyevsky's own deepest beliefs. One of his best critics has said of the first part that it forms his "most utterly naked pages. Never afterwards was he so fully and openly...

The third volume of the landmark European masterpiece about a woman lost in time. Tara Selter is no longer alone. I have met someone who remembers. Yesterday. That is to say, I met him yesterday. But he remembers yesterday, too. He remembers that we met yesterday. 'A classic in the making.' — Chetna Maroo 'I'm counting the days until the...

What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real. A lavishly illustrated edition of Murakami's classic short story. Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment. It was powerfully built, standing over six feet tall on its hind legs. A skinny little man no more than five foot three, Katagiri was overwhelmed by the frog's imposing...

Breathtakingly inventive – David Mitchell A masterwork by the incomparable, genre-defying, wondrous Italo Calvino. You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But there is a printer's error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be...

Published in English for the first time, Save Me is the first book in the Maxton Hall trilogy and the inspiration for the NUMBER ONE AMAZON PRIME TV series! Money, glamour, luxury, power - Ruby Bell couldn't be less interested in these things if she tried. As a scholarship student at one of England's most prestigious private schools, Maxton Hall...

The Castle is Kafka's last great, unfinished novel— the book that hangs over the whole modern era like a nightmare. The Castle tells the story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and...

A collection of Kafka's greatest stories, including his famous tale of alienation, now in Penguin Black Classics. This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement,...

A twisty standalone thriller from the author of The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair. "Twists, turns, cliffhangers and red herrings galore" The Times "Nothing will matter to you more than finishing this book" Elle In the summer of 1994, the quiet seaside town of Orphea reels from the discovery of four murders. Two young police officers, Jesse Rosenberg and...

Without even realising it, we may touch and change someone else's life. This is the debut novel by the multi-million-copy bestselling author of What You Are Looking For Is In The Library. Much-loved modern classic by the bestselling author of What You Are Looking For Is In The Library for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Readers love Hot...

From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research centre that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own... The acclaimed Korean horror and...

A superb translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka's most frightening, strange and visionary short fiction. After Franz Kafka's death, in perhaps the most important of all acts of literary disobedience, his executor refused to agree to Kafka's wish that his great mass of unpublished fiction be destroyed. This fiction included not only The Castle and The Trial but...

The Amberglow Candy Store is a charming fable-like novel in translation about half-fox shopkeeper Kogetsu, who learns life and emotional lessons through his interactions with the customers in his shop. It is perfect for fans of Before The Coffee Gets Cold. This delightful book of linked stories adds a sprinkle of cosy fantasy and a fable-like touch. The story takes...

Published in English for the first time, this is the second book in the Maxton Hall trilogy and the inspiration for the NUMBER ONE AMAZON PRIME TV series! The second book in Mona Kasten's multi-million copy internationally bestselling Maxton Hall series that inspired the Amazon Prime TV show.

The Handmaid's Tale meets The Road in this haunting, heartbreaking tale of female resilience in a post-apocalyptic world. SISTERHOOD. SECRETS. SURVIVAL. Discover the haunting, heart-breaking post-apocalyptic TikTok sensation. Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus? Watched over by guards, the women have no...

"Normality is the creepiest madness there is..." From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination. Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting...

The second instalment in the Cold Case Quartet from one of Scandinavia's most successful writers. It's been fifteen years since Simon Meier walked out of his house, never to be seen again. And just one day since politician Bernard Clausen was found dead at his cabin on the Norwegian coast. When Chief Inspector William Wisting is asked to investigate, he...

Jay Rubin's translation of Soseki's cherished novel, new to Penguin Classics. One of Soseki's most beloved works of fiction, the novel depicts the 23-year-old Sanshiro leaving the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the constantly moving 'real world' of Tokyo, its women and university. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humour...

A man starts driving without knowing where he is going. He alternates between turning right and left, and finally he gets stuck at the end of a forest road. Soon it gets dark and starts to snow, but instead of going back to find help, he ventures, foolishly, into the dark forest. Inevitably, the man gets lost, and as he...

Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. A dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder. As he pursues the idea of marrying...

Peter Carson's new translation of Turgenev's vivid and honest tale of generational conflict. When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by...

The ten stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoy's artistic prowess displayed over five decades, experimenting with prose styles and drawing on his own experiences with humour, realism, and compassion. Inspired by his experiences in the army, The Two Hussars contrasts a dashing father and his mean-spirited son. Illustrating Tolstoy's belief that art must serve a moral purpose, What Men...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, a moving portrayal of the fragility of the human mind and an acclaimed Norwegian masterpiece. The Birds is the story of Mattis, a mentally handicapped man who lives with and is cared for by his older sister, Hege. Within their isolated, lakeside existence, Mattis cannot make sense of his tangled thoughts, frightening apparitions, surges of...

Published for the first time in English, this deeply autobiographical novel by Nobel Prize-winning writer José Saramago tells the powerful story of the Mau-Tempo family. This deeply personal work follows the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family—poor, landless peasants not unlike the author's own grandparents. Saramago charts the lives of the family in Alentejo, southern Portugal, as national and international...

A PMC reissue of this collection of Kafka's greatest short fiction, translated by Michael Hofmann. A reissue of the Penguin Modern Classics edition, this collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection...

Beautiful Star is the novel Yukio Mishima considered to be one of his best works— a tale of family, nuclear war, love, and UFOs. The Osugi family have come to a realization. Each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, Mother from Jupiter, Son from Mercury, and Daughter from Venus. Already seen as oddballs in their small...

Like a long winter's dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history. Beginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to...

"If you liked The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair, you will love this" The Times "One of the world's most original voices in crime fiction" A. J. Finn, #1 bestselling author of The Woman in the Window The murder of Alaska Sanders was quickly solved. Within days, two suspects were identified. One died, the other pleaded guilty. Case closed....

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami is a poignant exploration of unrequited love, identity, and the mysteries of existence, set against the backdrop of Murakami's signature blend of magical realism and existential inquiry. At its core, the novel follows twenty-two-year-old Sumire, an aspiring writer with a bohemian flair, who finds herself in love for the first time. Her unexpected object of...

Stefan Zweig's most famous novel, reissued with a new jacket and title. 'I can't take any more of your revolting merciful kindness!' Who would have thought that the great military hero Captain Hofmiller - that living monument to his own courage - would have anything burdening his soul? But when he reveals his story, it is not one of bravery...

Irresistible companion piece to Hot Chocolate on Thursday, set in a charming cafe, by the million-copy bestselling brand author of What You Are Looking For is in the Library. The Global Bestseller By the multi-million-copy author of What You Are Looking For is in the Library, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold Tucked behind the trees in a...

New translation by Roger Pearson of the novel considered to be Zola's masterpiece. Considered by Andre Gide to be one of the ten greatest novels in the French language, Germinal is a brutal depiction of the poverty and wretchedness of a mining community in northern France under the second empire. At the centre of the novel is Etienne Lantier, a...

Their passion is undeniable, but can their love survive the winter? The third volume of the official webcomic based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Suji Kim.As the first snow falls over Anatol, Maxi begins to settle into her new life as the wife of Riftan Calypse. But even as she makes progress in her magical studies with...

Authentic healing fiction from the 2.5-million-copy bestselling author of What You Are Looking for is in the Library, set in a suburban community block. PRE-ORDER THE NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY Readers adore The Healing Hippo Of Hinode Park: 'I wanted to discover the magical hippo in myself as I...

A Japanese masterpiece, reissued in Modern Classics. Written when Mishima was only twenty-six, Forbidden Colours is a depiction of a male homosexual relationship, in which a rich older man buys the love of a young man who is stunningly handsome but lacks the ability to love. As in Mann's Death in Venice, the older man's longing for the beauty of...