Seasons of Stories Book Club April Meeting

APRIL 2026 BOOK SELECTION

The Setting Sun

by: Osamu Dazai

Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made “people of the setting sun” a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.

The author of the global bestseller No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was famous for confronting head-on the social and moral crises of postwar Japan. He committed suicide by drowning in Tokyo’s Tamagawa Aqueduct.
Donald Keene, the author of dozens of books in both English and Japanese as well as the famed translator of Dazai, Kawabata, and Mishima, was the first non-Japanese to receive the Yomiuri Prize for Literature.

ORDER THE BOOK HERE

Seasons of Stories is a new book club at Shinzen Garden that invites readers to gather in the natural setting of the garden to explore literature inspired by Japanese culture and explore books from Japanese American authors.  We will be diving into a thoughtfully selected book each month and enjoy meaningful conversations surrounded by the beauty of the garden. All are welcome—bring your curiosity and love for stories!

Join our online club by scanning the QR Code