100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery from our NZ-owned independent bookstore! πŸŽ‰

Death in Midsummer

And Other Stories
By Yukio Mishima
0.0 (0 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Death in Midsummer by Yukio Mishima is a compelling collection of short stories that explore themes of love, loss, and the fragility of life. Through a series of emotionally intense narratives, Mishima delves into the complex inner worlds of his characters, capturing human vulnerabilities and the haunting beauty of fleeting moments. Each story is woven with his trademark elegance and psychological depth, making the collection a profound meditation on the human condition.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Death in Midsummer. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate stories that delve into the intricate psychology of human emotions and the complexities of Japanese society. It offers a compelling exploration of life's fragility, often blending themes of beauty and decay in a lyrical, thought-provoking manner. If you're drawn to deep, immersive narratives that reveal human nature's darker sides, this book could be a fascinating read for you.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Recognized throughout the world for his brilliance as a novelist and playwright, Yukio Mishima is also noted as a master of the short story in his native Japan, where the form is practiced as a major art.

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

Death in Midsummer by Yukio Mishima presents nine of Mishima's finest stories, handpicked by the author himself for translation in this compilation. These stories showcase his extraordinary ability to depict a wide variety of human beings in moments of significance.

Often, Mishima's characters are sophisticated modern Japanese who discover they are not as liberated from the past as they had thought.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Death in Midsummer showcases Yukio Mishima's diverse narrative abilities, delving into the intricate facets of the Japanese psyche. The book melds humour with intense psychological depth, akin to Hitchcock's style. Readers experience more than mere stories; they encounter an enigmatic presence lurking within Mishima's prose, which some describe as genius, highlighting his stature as a significant 20th-century writer.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780811201179

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 February 1966

Country: United States

Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 206.0mm

Weight: 218g

Pages: 192

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Yukio Mishima

About the Author

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was many people. The best known in Japan of the writers to emerge there after World War II, he was by far the most published abroad. Mishima completed his first novel the year he entered the University of Tokyo. More followed (some twenty-three, the last completed the day of his death in November, 1970), along with more than forty play, over ninety short stories, several poetry and travel volumes and hundreds of essays. Influenced by European literature, in which he was exceptionally well read, he was an interpreter to his own people of Japan's ancient virtues, to which he urged a return. He had sung on the stage, starred in and directed movies and was a noted practitioner of Japan's traditional martial arts. He seemed at the height of his career and vitality at the age of forty-five, when after a demonstration in the public interest he committed suicide by ceremonial seppuku.

Also by Yukio Mishima

View all
  • The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea
    The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima explores the dark and complex psyches of a group of disillusioned adolescents and the tragic consequences of their discontent. This haunting novel delves into the tension between idealism and reality, revealing the often brutal nature of human desires. The story centres around Noboru, a thirteen-year-old boy who, along...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Buy to Win
    Confessions of a Mask
    Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima is an introspective and vividly descriptive exploration of a young man's struggle with his concealed identity in post-war Japan. The protagonist, Kochan, a Japanese teenager, grapples with the awakening of his homosexual and sadistic desires in an acutely homophobic and conservative society. Each night, Kochan is haunted by intense fantasies in which he...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Buy to Win
    Death in Midsummer
    Ten tales of loss and longing, from one of Japan's greatest writers. Bringing together Yukio Mishima's finest stories, this selection showcases his extraordinary ability to depict a wide variety of human beings in moments of significance. A moonlit journey to fulfil a wish; a mother lost in mourning; a night of infidelity; and a young lieutenant who ends his life....
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Spring Snow
    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 outsidersβ€”rich provincial families, a new and powerful elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura familyβ€”members of the waning aristocracyβ€”but he is not one of them. Coming...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Backorder
    Ships mid August
  • Buy to Win
    Forbidden Colours
    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...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2900
    Elsewhere:
    $3200
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea (Vintage Classics Japanese Series)
    The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima delves into the intersecting lives of a disenchanted adolescent and a weather-beaten sailor, set against the backdrop of post-war Japan. The novel explores themes of innocence corrupted by disillusionment and the brutal clash between youthful idealism and adult sentimentality. The story follows a group of thirteen-year-old boys who...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2800
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Buy to Win
    The Frolic of the Beasts
    New in Penguin Japanese Classics - a gripping novel about a love affair gone wrong. Introducing Penguin Japanese Classics - a collection of some of Japan's most celebrated and ground-breaking 20th-century writers, with covers inspired by Japanese art and design. Taking us from a sun-drenched affair in a seaside town to an underground 'ark' full of shadows and eccentrics, with...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Decay of the Angel
    The fourth and final book in Mishima's landmark tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. The dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. It is the 1960s, and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru. Honda believes that the boy is the reincarnation of the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Runaway Horses
    The second novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Runaway Horses is the second book in Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. It is a story of political violence, traditional samurai values, and nihilism. Isao is a young, engaging patriot and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists,...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Buy to Win
    Death in Midsummer
    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. Filled with rich description and luxurious beauty, these ten tales of loss and longing from one of Japan's greatest writers show the pull between duty and desire, ecstasy and death. Experience stories of a mother lost...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Hardback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Sound of Waves
    The Sound of Waves is a classic, elegant romance set in a Japanese fishing village. In a remote fishing village in Japan, two very different young people fall in love. Shinji is a hard-working fisherman, while Hatsue is the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. She is also a diver for pearls and seaweed alongside the other...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea
    VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS- Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the great Japanese classic. 'Mishima's greatest novel, and one of the greatest of the past century' - The Times A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of...
    By Yukio Mishima
    Hardback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    By Sarah A. Parker
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Golden Son
    ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    By Kristin Hannah
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Buy to Win
    East of Eden
    Set against the backdrop of the fertile Salinas Valley in California, East of Eden is a profound and compelling novel by John Steinbeck, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. This masterful narrative charts the intertwining destinies of two familiesβ€”the Trasks and the Hamiltonsβ€”across multiple generations. Steinbeck's intricate portrayal of human nature and enduring exploration of moral themes...
    By John Steinbeck
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all