Book cover for Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima

Forbidden Colors

1999 Released
416 Pages
6-9 Hours
★ 3.96 2,469 ratings
Ebook Unavailable
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
VintageISBN 9780375705168
Translated by Alfred H Marks

From one of Japan's greatest modern writers comes an exquisitely disturbing novel of sexual combat and concealed passion, a work that distills beauty, longing, and loathing into an intoxicating tale. - "One of the outstanding writers of the world." --The New York Times

An aging, embittered novelist sets out to avenge himself on the women who have betrayed him. He finds the perfect instrument in Yuichi, a young man whose beauty makes him irresistible to women but who is just discovering his attraction to other men. As Yuichi's mentor presses him into a loveless marriage and a series of equally loveless philanderings, his protégé enters the gay underworld of postwar Japan where Yuichi is defenseless as any of the women he preys upon.

Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) completed his first novel the year he entered the University of Tokyo and his last novel the day of his death. He is the author of numerous novels, stories, plays, and essays. Gore Vidal once said of him: “I only regret we never met, for friends found him a good companion, a fine drinking partner, and fun to cruise with.” Mishima committed suicide by ceremonial seppuku after a failed coup d’e´tat intended to restore pre-WWII power to the emperor of Japan.

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Alfred H Marks

Translated by

Alfred H. Marks (1920-2014) was a professor of early American literature at the State University of New York at New Paltz, who published works on Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman. He was a translator of modern Japanese literature, including works by Yukio Mishima.

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