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Kōbō Abe’s Followers (2,150)

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: 3.76 · 71,800 ratings · 7,576 reviews · 209 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe, Machi Abe (Illustrator), E. Dale Saunders (Translator) 3.88 avg rating — 41,525 ratings — published 1962 — 53 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) 3.57 avg rating — 7,978 ratings — published 1973 — 59 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) 3.73 avg rating — 5,979 ratings — published 1964 — 59 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 — 3,028 ratings — published 1967 — 26 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) 3.45 avg rating — 2,250 ratings — published 1977 — 29 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) 3.48 avg rating — 2,142 ratings — published 1984 — 20 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 3.45 avg rating — 2,099 ratings — published 1991 — 19 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
	Inter Ice Age 4 3.67 avg rating — 1,401 ratings — published 1959 — 40 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 — 828 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) 4.13 avg rating — 522 ratings — published 1964 — 4 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,

Mikołaj Melanowicz (Translator),

Henryk Lipszyc (Translator),

Estera Żeromska (Translator),

Monika Jura-Kołodziejczyk (Translator)

3.18 avg rating — 39 ratings

Quotes by Kōbō Abe (?)

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

190 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

149 likes

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

141 likes

See all Kōbō Abe's quotes »

Polls

Scegliete tra le proposte la lettura di Dicembre.

Uscirne vivi di Alice Munro

8 votes, 27.6%

L'invenzione della solitudine di Paul Auster

6 votes, 20.7%

Il quaderno canguro di Kōbō Abe

2 votes, 6.9%

Io venìa pien d'angoscia a rimirarti di Michele Mari

2 votes, 6.9%

La ferocia di Nicola Lagioia

2 votes, 6.9%

Questa è l'acqua di David Foster Wallace

2 votes, 6.9%

Invito a una decapitazione di Vladimir Nabokov

2 votes, 6.9%

L'uomo di Kiev di Bernard Malamud

1 vote, 3.4%

Pnin di Vladimir Nabokov

1 vote, 3.4%

Il piccolo amico di Donna Tartt

1 vote, 3.4%

Il potere del cane di Don Winslow

1 vote, 3.4%

I miei luoghi oscuri di James Ellroy

1 vote, 3.4%

Assalonne, Assalonne! di William Faulkner

0 votes, 0.0%

V. di Thomas Pynchon

0 votes, 0.0%

29 total votes

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Kōbō Abe’s Followers (2,150)

Kōbō Abe

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Series by Kōbō Abe

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Kōbō Abe’s books