Kōbō Abe’s Followers (2,063)

Kōbō Abe

Born

in Kita, Tokyo, Japan

March 07, 1924

Died

January 22, 1993

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories, Contemporary

Influences

Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Miller, Albert Camus ...more

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Kōbō Abe (安部公房 Abe Kōbō), 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 muc ...more

Combine Editions
Kōbō Abe’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 67,780 ratings · 6,901 reviews · 216 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe, Machi Abe (Illustrator), E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.88 avg rating — 39,080 ratings — published 1962 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.58 avg rating — 7,541 ratings — published 1973 — 58 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.74 avg rating — 5,641 ratings — published 1964 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.45 avg rating — 2,847 ratings — published 1967 — 51 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.46 avg rating — 2,165 ratings — published 1977 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.49 avg rating — 2,028 ratings — published 1984 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 3.46 avg rating — 2,019 ratings — published 1991	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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 3.68 avg rating — 1,303 ratings — published 1959 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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) 3.64 avg rating — 797 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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
	Woman in the Dunes / The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe, E. Dale Saunders (translator) 4.14 avg rating — 486 ratings — published 1964 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. 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…

Series by Kōbō Abe

Four Stories (1 book)
by

Kōbō Abe

3.24 avg rating — 38 ratings

Quotes by Kōbō Abe (?)

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

188 likes

“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...”
― Kobo Abe, The Box Man

151 likes

“Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?”
― Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

139 likes

See all Kōbō Abe's quotes »

Polls

Random Sci-Fi Book for December

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

50 votes, 21.6%

Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer

35 votes, 15.1%

Archangel, by Sharon Shinn

34 votes, 14.7%

Blackout, by Connie Willis

34 votes, 14.7%

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin

25 votes, 10.8%

City of Pearl, by Karen Traviss

14 votes, 6.0%

Crash, by J.G. Ballard

13 votes, 5.6%

Vast, by Linda Nagata

10 votes, 4.3%

Dr. Identity, by D. Harlan Wilson

9 votes, 3.9%

Kangaroo Notebook: A Novel, Kōbō Abe

8 votes, 3.4%

232 total votes

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Kōbō Abe’s Followers (2,063)

Kōbō Abe

Combine EditionsKōbō Abe’s books

Series by Kōbō Abe

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Kōbō Abe’s books