Thousand Cranes

Yasunari Kawabata · 1899–1972 · Japan

Originally Senbazuru (Japanese) · translated by Edward Seidensticker

Why it matters

A tea ceremony introduces Kikuji to his late father's former mistress, then her daughter, guilt passed hand to hand like the bowls themselves. Kawabata's most ritualized novel: inheritance as a stain no one can quite wash out.

At a glance

Spare, elliptical prose where tea-ceremony ritual carries unstated emotional freight.