Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata
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At a glance:
- Author: Yasunari Kawabata
- First Published: 1935
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Symbolic realism
- Setting: Mountains of northwest Japan
- Characters: Shimamura, Komako, Yukio, Yoko
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Psychological fiction, Novel
- Subjects: Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Prostitution or prostitutes, 1930's, Beauty, Emotions, Women, Hotels, motels, or inns, Trains, Japan or Japanese people, Time, Mountains, Snow, Geishas
- Locales: Asia, Japan, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
The Story:
Shimamura, a writer who lives in Tokyo with his wife and children, is on a train headed to a hot-springs spa in a mountainous area of northwest Japan, an area known for its heavy snows. Shimamura speculates about the nature of the relationship between an ill man and a girl seated across the aisle from him and becomes fascinated by the girl’s image reflected in the mirrorlike window of the train. He sees her disembodied face against the background of the mountains and has a vision of her eye floating beautifully and transparently over the passing landscape of the...
(The entire page is 2360 words.)
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