Description
At a precarious crossroads in youth, Susumu must decide between the safety of education and the intoxicating pull of stardom—while grief, family strain, and responsibility press in from every side. With his father gone, his mother confined, and his brother drifting away from his own future, Susumu’s dream of becoming Japan’s most famous actor becomes both a lifeline and a dangerous distraction. Drawing on the diary of a real-life performer, this novel reframes Osamu Dazai’s signature themes of self-destruction and emotional volatility through the sharper, more immediate lens of a bright-eyed teenager trying to survive his own contradictions. Told with Dazai’s darkly luminous psychological insight and rendered in a bold contemporary English translation, it’s a story of ambition, alienation, and the uneasy search for meaning when everything at home is falling apart.
Available Editions
paperback
チャールズ・イ・タトル出版
Published Jan 30, 2026
ISBN: 9784805318720
Reviews
No ratings yet. Be the first!
No written reviews yet.
Details
First Published
2026
Language
eng
Translation
From: jpn
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Justice with a Smile by Osamu Dazai.