This collection unearths the Japanese literary legend's most controversial and exhilarating early-career writing with first-time and original translations. 'Retrograde' traces the life of an anguished youth in reverse; 'Das Gemeine' features an aspiring literato with a dark past who hitches his wagon to an eccentric violinist; 'Blossom-Leaves and the Spirit Whistle' tells of an old woman recalling the final breaths of her beautiful, sickly sister. Experience the twisted agony of the prose that propelled Dazai to the top of the literary world.