Kobo Abe — one of the most brilliant writers of Japan, a star of the post-war Japanese avant-garde; according to another well-known Japanese author, Kenzaburo Oe, he is — the greatest writer in the entire history of literature. Kobo Abe's books are read all over the world, films are made based on them, and plays are staged. A continuator of the traditions of Dostoevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, and Alberto Moravia, a precursor of Haruki Murakami, in each of his novels he creates a surreal reality that reconfigures the reader's worldview, distorts or clarifies the reader's perceptions, and each time leaves them utterly stunned. His novel «Those Who Entered the Ark» — a grotesque story about people on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster, about paranoia and loneliness, hope for salvation, and the impossibility of being saved.
