Sanshiro

A gorgeous new clothbound edition of Soseki''s cherished novel, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami

''Even bigger than Japan is the inside of your head. Don''t ever surrender yourself - not to Japan, not to anything''

Soseki''s work of gentle humour and doomed innocence depicts twenty-three-year-old Sanshiro, a recent graduate from a provincial college, as he begins university life in the big city of Tokyo. Baffled and excited by the traffic, the academics and - most of all - the women, Sanshiro must find his way amongst the sophisticates that fill his new life. An incisive social and cultural commentary, Sanshiro is also a subtle study of first love, tradition and modernization, and the idealism of youth against the cynicism of middle age.

This Penguin Classics edition of Soseki''s beloved novel is translated by Jay Rubin with an introduction by Haruki Murakami.

Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is often considered the greatest modern Japanese novelist. In 1900, his government sent him to England for two years as ''Japan''s first Japanese English literary scholar'', but he had a miserable time there. Returning to Japan, he wrote his greatest novels, including Botchan, Sanshiro and Kokoro, as well as essays, haiku, and kanshi.

Jay Rubin is an American translator and academic. He is the translator of several of Haruki Murakami''s major works, including Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Natsume Soseki''s The Miner and Sanshiro and Ryunosuke Akutagawa''s Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories. He is the author of Making Sense of Japanese, Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words and a novel, The Sun Gods.