Jun’ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most eminent Japanese writers of the twentieth century, renowned for his investigations of family dynamics, eroticism, and cultural identity. Most acclaimed for his postwar novels such as The Makioka Sisters and The Key, Tanizaki made his literary debut in 1910. This book presents three powerful stories of family life from the first decade of Tanizaki’s career that foreshadow the themes the great writer would go on to explore.

“Longing” recounts the fantastic journey of a precocious young boy through an eerie nighttime landscape. Replete with striking natural images and uncanny human encounters, it ends with a striking revelation. “Sorrows of a Heretic” follows a university student and aspiring novelist who lives in degrading poverty in a Tokyo tenement. Ambitious and tormented, the young man rebels against his family against a backdrop of sickness and death. “The Story of an Unhappy Mother” describes a vivacious but self-centered woman’s drastic transformation after a freak accident involving her son and daughter-in-law. Written in different genres, the three stories are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan’s traditional culture in the face of Westernization. The longtime Tanizaki translators Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy masterfully bring these important works to an Anglophone audience.

"Though Tanizaki was prolific, by now most of his major works have found their way into English. That there are still delights to be uncovered, however, is confirmed by the arrival of Longing and Other Stories . . . the stories are satisfying in themselves and additionally pleasing for their hints of an emergent mastery." - Wall Street Journal

"Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations." - Booklist

"A kind of master class in voice . . . The world of literature is much richer now that Longing and Other Stories is available for English readers." - New York Journal of Books

"This is a beautiful and immaculate Japanese short story collection from one of Japan’s greatest writers." - Books and Bao

"A fine and nicely varied little sampler of Tanizaki's early writing." - Complete Review

"In all of these three very different stories we hear Tanizaki’s distinctive voice and enjoy the products of his overwrought imagination. This translation is a valuable addition to the canon." - Times Literary Supplement

"There’s a tremendous sense of loss shared by all three of the stories collected in this volume, with regret lurking close behind. Whether focusing on a dreamer wandering through a mythic landscape or a man becoming acutely aware of his own flaws, Tanizaki creates characters whose psychologies resonate and whose flaws are engaging." - Words Without Borders

"A brilliantly efficient introduction to [Tanizaki’s] work." - Shiny New Books

"Longing and Other Stories provides not only three thematically-linked stories to the canon, the afterword also adds an excellent resource of accessible scholarship and close-reading." - Asian Review of Books

"Such brilliant storytelling . . . Tanizaki’s luminous and lucid prose forces the reader into an existential dilemma faced by the author and his characters, one of children torn between the old world and the new." - Asia Media International

"A heady accomplishment . . . Longing and Other Stories blends artful translation, gorgeous prose, and round, imperfect human people that are truly terrifying." - Locus Magazine

"Tanizaki was a master of different styles and voices, a skill in evident display in these new translations by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy . . . this short collection really runs the gamut of mother-son relationships, allowing these disparate stories to achieve something close to unity of theme. Authors often return to the same topic over the course of their careers but few have the breadth of talent to take such fresh approaches each time." - Japan Times

"The translators … have rendered the English seamlessly. Moreover, by taking all three stories from early in the author’s career, they give us a valuable window on to his development. They also showcase his inventiveness in tackling entirely different modes of narrative." - Mekong Review

"This is literature for the soul at its finest." - Asia Media International