Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, afigure of truly national stature.Haruki Murakami

The father of modern Japanese literature’s best-loved novel, in its first newEnglish translation in half a century

No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Natsume Soseki’sKokoro,his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death. Publishedhere in the first new translation in more than fifty years,Kokoromeaning”heart”is the story of a subtle and poignant friendship between twounnamed characters, a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls”Sensei.” Haunted by tragic secrets that have cast a long shadow overhis life, Sensei slowly opens up to his young disciple, confessingindiscretions from his own student days that have left him reeling with guilt,and revealing, in the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between his moral anguishand his student’s struggle to understand it, the profound cultural shift fromone generation to the next that characterized Japan in the early twentiethcentury.

About the Author

Natsume Soseki(1867-1916), one of Japan’s mostinfluential modern writers, is widely considered the foremost novelist of theMeiji era (1868-1914) and a master of psychological fiction. As well as hisworks of fiction, his essays, haiku, and kanshi have been influential and arepopular even today.

Meredith McKinney(translator) holds a PhD in medieval Japaneseliterature from the University in Canberra, where she teaches in the JapanCentre. She lived and taught in Japan for twenty years and now lives nearBraidwood, New South Wales. Her other translations includeRavine andOther Stories,The Tale of Saigyo, and for PenguinClassics,The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, andKusamakura.