Смех сумасшедших

by Kyūsaku Yumeno, Юмэно Кюсаку

В сборнике «Смех сумасшедших» представлены рассказы восьми японских авторов 1920–1930-х годов, которые работали на стыке жанров—детектива, мистики и научной фантастики. Этих писателей отличает интерес к неизведанному, будоражащему и пикантному, характерный для бурной межвоенной эпохи. Практически все эти авторы не известны современному российскому читателю, но настоящий сборник призван исправить это упущение и познакомить читателей с малоизвестной гранью японской литературы.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Yumeno Kyūsaku (native name: 夢野 久作) was the pen name of the early Shōwa period Japanese author Sugiyama Yasumichi. The pen name literally means "a person who always dreams." He wrote detective novels and is known for his avant-gardism and his surrealistic, wildly imaginative and fantastic, even bizarre narratives.

Kyūsaku’s first success was a nursery tale Shiraga Kozō (White Hair Boy, 1922), which was largely ignored by the public. It was not until his first novella, Ayakashi no Tsuzumi (Apparitional Hand Drum, 1924) in the literary magazine Shinseinen that his name became known.

His subsequent works include Binzume jigoku (Hell in the Bottles, 1928), Kori no hate (End of the Ice, 1933) and his most significant novel Dogra Magra (ドグラマグラ, 1935), which is considered a precursor of modern Japanese science fiction and was adapted for a 1988 movie.

Kyūsaku died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1936 while talking with a visitor at home.