Thirst for Love

Yukio Mishima is the most famous and widely read Japanese writer in the world. Equally renowned for his works as well as his extravagant lifestyle and death. "Thirst for Love" is the writer's third novel, one of his most vivid early works, included by UNESCO in the collection of masterpieces of Japanese literature. The work, with extraordinary power and skill, tells about the destructive force of desire and how differently people understand love. The action takes place in the post-war period in the vicinity of Osaka. Young widow Etsuko, a refined beauty and heir to an ancient lineage, lives in the house of her father-in-law, a landowner, whose attentions become increasingly intrusive, while she herself is consumed by a secret passion for the young gardener Saburo. Etsuko perfectly understands that her thirst for love will not be quenched, but she cannot resist the attraction. The story, with a simple plot, written with the highest skill and deep psychological insight, will make a wonderful gift for men and women, lovers of Japanese literature, and connoisseurs of high literary prose.

Yukio Mishima is a bright representative of Japanese aesthetics. His work and extraordinary biography continue to attract readers' attention.
At the start of his career, Mishima was supported by the future Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. The breakthrough came with the release of the novel "Confessions of a Mask" (1949): Japan was both shocked and fascinated by a new voice in literature.
Key works:
• "Thirst for Love" (1950);
• "Forbidden Colors" (1951);
• "The Sound of Waves" (1954);
• "The Golden Temple" (1956);
• the tetralogy "The Sea of Fertility" - the pinnacle of his work, which partly became a literary testament.