Kōbō Abe

Author profile

born

in Kita, Tokyo, Japan

March 07, 1924

died

January 22, 1993

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction & Fantasy

influences

Edgar Allan Poe, Kafka, Dostoyevsky, Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Miller, Ge ...more

About this author

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Kōbō Abe, pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe, was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor.
He was the son of a doctor and studied medicine at Tokyo University. He never practised however, giving it up to join a literary group that aimed to apply surrealist techniques to Marxist ideology.

Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities.

He was first published as a poet in 1947 with Mumei shishu ("Poems of an unknown poet") and as a novelist the following year with Owarishi michi no shirube ni ("The Road Sign at the End of the Street"), which established his reputation. Though he did much work as an avant-...more

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Kōbō Abe's Books

Average rating: 3.81 · 10,427 ratings · 831 reviews · 64 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 5,596 ratings — published 1962 — 51 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Box Man by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 1,204 ratings — published 1973 — 17 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 879 ratings — published 1964 — 23 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ruined Map by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 549 ratings — published 1967 — 13 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe, Maryellen Toman Mori (Translator) 3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 454 ratings — published 1991 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Secret Rendezvous by Kōbō Abe, Juliet Winters Carpenter (Translator) 3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 429 ratings — published 1979 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ark Sakura by Kōbō Abe, Juliet Winters Carpenter (Translator) 3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 401 ratings — published 1984 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Inter Ice Age 4 3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 avg rating — 241 ratings — published 1959 — 14 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beyond the Curve by Kōbō Abe, Juliet Winters Carpenter (Translator) 3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 182 ratings — published 1991 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Three Plays: Involuntary Homicide / The Green Stockings / The Ghost is Here by Kōbō Abe, Donald Keene (Translator) 3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 1993 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Kōbō Abe…

Quotes by Kōbō Abe

“When I look at small things, I think I shall go on living: drops of rain, leather gloves shrunk by being wet...When I look at something too big, I want to die: the Diet Building, or a map of the world...”
― Kōbō Abe, The Box Man

37 people liked it

“The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.”
― Kōbō Abe

30 people liked it

“Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.”
― Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

27 people liked it

See all Kōbō Abe's quotes »

Polls

Random Sci-Fi Book for December

The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula K. Le Guin

53 votes, 22.0%

Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer

37 votes, 15.4%

Blackout, by Connie Willis

36 votes, 14.9%

Archangel, by Sharon Shinn

35 votes, 14.5%

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin

25 votes, 10.4%

City of Pearl, by Karen Traviss

14 votes, 5.8%

Crash, by J.G. Ballard

13 votes, 5.4%

Dr. Identity, by D. Harlan Wilson

10 votes, 4.1%

Vast, by Linda Nagata

10 votes, 4.1%

Kangaroo Notebook: A Novel, Kōbō Abe

8 votes, 3.3%

241 total votes

16 comments

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