"The Face of Another" is an acknowledged masterpiece by Kōbō Abe, a Japanese master of profound and paradoxical philosophical prose. The novel's nameless protagonist and narrator is a scientist injured in a laboratory explosion. Fearing loneliness and alienation, he attempts to hide his burns and devotes his efforts to creating a realistic mask that would allow him to once again become a part of the world of people with normal faces. But after putting it on, the scientist suddenly realizes that it is not he who is using the mask, but the mask that is using him, provoking strange desires and actions and gradually changing his personality. The fear of losing oneself and the fear of being rejected, combined with the endless search for the true "self," create a mixture just as explosive as the one that burned his real face.
Author: Kōbō Abe
Translation: Vladimir Grivnin
Pages: 320 (offset). Hardcover
Dimensions: 188x124x18 mm
