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The Rainbow

By Yasunari Kawabata
Penguin Classics
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
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Brief Description
A powerful, poignant novel about three half-sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow Country. With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two half-sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle... Read More
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A powerful, poignant novel about three half-sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow Country.

With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two half-sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age.

Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. Meanwhile, Momoko, their father's first child—haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together—seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances.

Both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. The Rainbow is a thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the inescapability of the past. It is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241542293

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 October 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Haydn Trowell
  • Translated by Haydn Trowell

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 171g

Pages: 224

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Penguin Classics: General Fiction Series: Penguin Modern Classics Yasunari Kawabata

About the Author

Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1899 and before the Second World War had established himself as his country's leading novelist. Among his major works are Snow Country, A Thousand Cranes and The Master of Go. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, he died in 1972.

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  • Snow Country
    Introducing Little Clothbound Classics - irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Tired of the bustling city, a man takes the train through the snow to Japan's mountains, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, she is tightly bound by the rules...
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  • Thousand Cranes
    Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata is one of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. Kikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father, only to find that the mistress' rival and successor is also present. He falls for her, with devastating consequences. By 1949, Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese author to...
    By Yasunari Kawabata
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  • Snow Country
    A tale of wasted love, and beauty, by Japan's literary master. Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, Komako is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a...
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  • The Master of Go
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    Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Nobel Prize-Winner Yasunari Kawabata, and his remarkable fictional account of a world about to be cleft in two as two men battle to become the master of the strategy game, Go. Luminous, suspenseful and serene, The Master of Go is a compelling portrait, quietly devastating, of two men - and a whole society - facing...
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