Before you go...
Check Out
The Bestselling Books of All Time
See the List
The Box Man by Kobo Abe

Look Inside

The Box Man

A Novel

A Novel

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $15.95

Jul 10, 2001 | ISBN 9780375726514

Ebook $9.99

Dec 14, 2011 | ISBN 9780307813695

All Formats
+
    The Box Man by Kobo Abe
    Paperback $15.95
    Jul 10, 2001 | ISBN 9780375726514

    Also available from:

    See All Formats (1) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $15.95

      Jul 10, 2001 | ISBN 9780375726514

      Also available from:

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Dec 14, 2011 | ISBN 9780307813695

      Available from:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About The Box Man

    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.

    About The Box Man

    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.

    About Kobo Abe

    Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924 and grew up in Mukden, Manchuria, during World War II. In 1948 he received a medical degree from Tokyo Imperial University, but he never practiced medicine. Considered one of Japan’s foremost novelists, his… More about Kobo Abe

    About Kobo Abe

    Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924 and grew up in Mukden, Manchuria, during World War II. In 1948 he received a medical degree from Tokyo Imperial University, but he never practiced medicine. Considered one of Japan’s foremost novelists, his… More about Kobo Abe

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $15.95
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 10, 2001 | 192 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375726514

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $9.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 14, 2011 | 192 Pages | ISBN 9780307813695

    People Who Read The Box Man Also Read

    ‹ ›
    At the Water's Edge
    Far from the Madding Crowd (Movie Tie-in Edition)
    Show Boat
    Flags in the Dust
    Skipping Christmas
    Dark Places
    The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
    Human Traces
    Poems of the Late T'ang
    New Grub Street
    A Spot of Bother
    Thirteen Moons
    The Ghost Orchid
    Intuition
    Lunar Park
    Veronica
    Final Payments
    The Sorrows of Young Werther
    A Simple Heart
    Standing in the Rainbow
    Our Lady of the Forest
    Taras Bulba
    The Keepers of the House
    The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, The Blue Flower
    Unknown Masterpieces
    Three Junes
    A Multitude of Sins
    King Solomon's Mines
    Tom Jones
    The Glass Palace
    The Temptation of Saint Anthony
    The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
    Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
    Bee Season
    The Mabinogion
    For the Relief of Unbearable Urges
    Hanna's Daughters
    Flying Home
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    Impossible Vacation
    The Mill on the Floss
    Oblomov
    The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings
    The Big Knockover
    75 Short Masterpieces

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Praise

    “A spellbinder from beginnning to end, an edgy masterpiece.”–Chicago Sun-Times

    “A stunning addition to the literature of eccentricity…an ontological thriller.”–The New York Times

    “Brilliant…. Like Kafka’s, Abe’s work reveals an astonishing ability to create dreamlike events."–Chicago Tribune

    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    TASTE img

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!