Kōbō Abe’s Followers (1,898)

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: 3.78 · 60,689 ratings · 5,946 reviews · 192 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Woman in the Dunes 3.89 avg rating — 34,919 ratings — published 1962 — 182 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 3.60 avg rating — 6,741 ratings — published 1973 — 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 Face of Another 3.75 avg rating — 5,057 ratings — published 1964 — 54 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 3.47 avg rating — 2,582 ratings — published 1967 — 47 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 3.49 avg rating — 1,965 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
	Kangaroo Notebook 3.46 avg rating — 1,897 ratings — published 1991 — 17 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) 3.53 avg rating — 1,769 ratings — published 1984 — 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
	Inter Ice Age 4 3.70 avg rating — 1,110 ratings — published 1959 — 36 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) 3.66 avg rating — 728 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) 4.15 avg rating — 455 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

3.21 avg rating — 33 ratings

Quotes by Kōbō Abe (?)

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

183 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

tags: books, life-and-death, philosophy

131 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, 21.4%

Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer

36 votes, 15.4%

Blackout, by Connie Willis

35 votes, 15.0%

Archangel, by Sharon Shinn

34 votes, 14.5%

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin

25 votes, 10.7%

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, 3.8%

Kangaroo Notebook: A Novel, Kōbō Abe

8 votes, 3.4%

234 total votes

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Kōbō Abe’s Followers (1,898)

Kōbō Abe

Combine EditionsKōbō Abe’s books

Series by Kōbō Abe

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Kōbō Abe’s books