Voices of the Fallen Heroes, Yukio Mishima
Voices of the Fallen Heroes, Yukio Mishima
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Voices of the Fallen Heroes
And Other Stories

Author: Yukio Mishima, Stephen Dodd

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Unabridged: 9 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/14/2025

Synopsis

A new selection of Yukio Mishima (author of Spring Snow and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea) short stories from the 1960s—his final decade—Voices of the Fallen Heroes offers a unique glimpse into the mind of one of Japan’s greatest writers.

In the title story, "Voices of the Fallen Heroes," a séance brings forth the spirits of young officers in the Imperial Army and the kamikaze pilots of World War II, who reproach the Emperor and mourn Japan’s modern decline. In another, Mishima recounts the true story of the time a deranged fan broke into his home at dawn, insisting on meeting the author and imploring him to "tell the truth." Elsewhere, a beautiful youth achieves eternal life through violent murder, and an ill-matched couple seal their fate with a pack of cards, tangled in the web of time and unfulfilled desire.

Available in English for the first time, and carefully selected by a team of expert translators, these captivating stories serve as the perfect introduction to Mishima's work, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

About The Author

YUKIO MISHIMA was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University's School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944, and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy--which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)--is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)--a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Owen on February 07, 2025

Like some of the other recently translated Mishima, most of this is extremely enjoyable - revealing a much funnier, weirder, more modern, less otherwordly and self-orientalising writer than previously known in English (and also one much more conscious of his own self-generated spectacle, as in a fir......more

Goodreads review by Tosh on February 01, 2025

It is a disappointing collection of short stories that Yukio Mishima wrote in his last decade. I have to think about why this volume is below the mark for Mishma, but I suspect that he was an artist who produced a lot, and not everything he wrote was top-notch. I now suspect that the translators and......more

Goodreads review by James on January 20, 2025

Like DEATH IN MIDSUMMER, another classic collection of short fiction from Mishima. The story that gives this collection its title is a clear standout, but I also greatly enjoyed "The Flower Hat," "Moon," "Tickets," and "From the Wilderness," among others.......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on January 28, 2025

Some passages in here were totally mesmerising ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️......more

Goodreads review by Jade on March 24, 2025

jemig wat prachtig weer......more

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