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The Face of Another by Kobo Abe
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The Face of Another

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

By Kobo Abe

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $15.95

Feb 04, 2003 | 256 Pages

Ebook $7.99

Dec 14, 2011 | 256 Pages

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    The Face of Another by Kobo Abe
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    Feb 04, 2003 | 256 Pages
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      Feb 04, 2003 | 256 Pages

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      Dec 14, 2011 | 256 Pages

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    About The Face of Another

    Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his 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 a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self–a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity and the social contract, The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.

    About The Face of Another

    Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his 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 a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self–a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity and the social contract, The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Read An Excerpt

    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
    Feb 04, 2003 | 256 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375726538

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $7.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 14, 2011 | 256 Pages | ISBN 9780307813725

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    Praise

    "A fascinating book…. The world of Kobo Abe is one in which intellectual concepts have the emotional impact and motivating power of psychotic compulsions."–Newsweek

    "A major novel… Since The Woman in the Dunes, Kobo Abe’s stock as a novelist has been very high. The Face of Another raises it still more."–The Christian Science Monitor

    "Probes the edges of a waking nightmare….The central, shaping metaphor of face and facelessness is brilliant, and Abe’s relentless pursuit of its every implication is powerful."–The Saturday Review

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