No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

No Longer Human by Osamu DazaiPortraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the

Boggis is an enormously fat chicken farmer who only eats boiled chickens smothered in fat

surfing while wearing a hijab

Created in the Earth-shattering collision 4

with an introduction from the Booker-winning author John Banville

admire their knowledge

but simple murders

But what if the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him

spirituality

the anti-mafia judge

whose song is never far away

may experience his or her own fearlessness

In the strangers' house