斜陽

One of the most famous novels of Osamu Dazai was The Setting Sun (斜陽).

The story of this masterpiece may appear slightly outdated now: Kazuko (かず子), a young woman from a declining noble family and married to a novelist, had an affair with a soldier soon after the war and became pregnant - for sure a tragedy.

"When a girl reaches the stage of having her own secrets, it means that she has grown up." What a romantic declaration.

The tragedy of Kazuko started when her mother died of tuberculosis; Osamu Dazai himself followed the same course a few years after the novel was published. It was 1948 - twenty four years after Franz Kafka succumbed to this all-time killer.