What do you think?
Rate this book
Goodbye: Osamu Dazai's Unfinished Comic Masterpiece
Goodbye
A Comic Novel of Love, Deception, and Postwar JapanWhat would you do if you had ten mistresses—and suddenly decided to become respectable?
Three years after the end of World War II, magazine editor Shūji Tajima has had enough. Tired of the black market, tired of drinking, and tired of his tangled romantic life, he dreams of settling down with his wife and child.
There is only one
How does a man break up with all his mistresses at once?
Following the absurd advice of a cynical writer, Tajima devises a plan. He will find an extraordinarily beautiful woman, pretend she is his wife, and introduce her to each of his lovers. Surely that will solve everything.
Instead, he meets Kinuko Nagai—a raven-voiced black-market trader with astonishing beauty, enormous strength, a limitless appetite, and absolutely no intention of behaving as expected.
As Tajima's carefully laid plans collapse one after another, Dazai delivers a sparkling comedy of vanity, romance, postwar survival, and human weakness.
Written shortly before his death in 1948, Goodbye is Osamu Dazai's final and unfinished novel—a rare work that reveals the celebrated author at his funniest, warmest, and most entertaining.
What makes Goodbye especially remarkable is its tone. Written only months before Dazai's suicide, the novel is unexpectedly bright, playful, and full of laughter. Beneath the comedy lies the unmistakable voice of a writer confronting disappointment, aging, and the aftermath of war, yet doing so with wit, tenderness, and a surprising sense of optimism. The result is one of the most charming and unusual works in modern Japanese literature—a farewell that feels less like a tragedy than a mischievous smile.
Recommended for readers
Classic Japanese literatureLiterary fiction with humor and satireRomantic comedies and relationship storiesPostwar Japanese history and cultureFans of Osamu Dazai beyond No Longer HumanReaders of Natsume Sōseki, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Yasunari KawabataAnyone interested in unfinished literary masterpiecesFor readers who know Dazai only through his darker works, Goodbye offers a fascinating final a brilliantly funny, deeply human novel left unfinished at the very end of the author's life.
A Comic Novel of Love, Deception, and Postwar JapanWhat would you do if you had ten mistresses—and suddenly decided to become respectable?
Three years after the end of World War II, magazine editor Shūji Tajima has had enough. Tired of the black market, tired of drinking, and tired of his tangled romantic life, he dreams of settling down with his wife and child.
There is only one
How does a man break up with all his mistresses at once?
Following the absurd advice of a cynical writer, Tajima devises a plan. He will find an extraordinarily beautiful woman, pretend she is his wife, and introduce her to each of his lovers. Surely that will solve everything.
Instead, he meets Kinuko Nagai—a raven-voiced black-market trader with astonishing beauty, enormous strength, a limitless appetite, and absolutely no intention of behaving as expected.
As Tajima's carefully laid plans collapse one after another, Dazai delivers a sparkling comedy of vanity, romance, postwar survival, and human weakness.
Written shortly before his death in 1948, Goodbye is Osamu Dazai's final and unfinished novel—a rare work that reveals the celebrated author at his funniest, warmest, and most entertaining.
What makes Goodbye especially remarkable is its tone. Written only months before Dazai's suicide, the novel is unexpectedly bright, playful, and full of laughter. Beneath the comedy lies the unmistakable voice of a writer confronting disappointment, aging, and the aftermath of war, yet doing so with wit, tenderness, and a surprising sense of optimism. The result is one of the most charming and unusual works in modern Japanese literature—a farewell that feels less like a tragedy than a mischievous smile.
Recommended for readers
Classic Japanese literatureLiterary fiction with humor and satireRomantic comedies and relationship storiesPostwar Japanese history and cultureFans of Osamu Dazai beyond No Longer HumanReaders of Natsume Sōseki, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Yasunari KawabataAnyone interested in unfinished literary masterpiecesFor readers who know Dazai only through his darker works, Goodbye offers a fascinating final a brilliantly funny, deeply human novel left unfinished at the very end of the author's life.
Audible Audio
Published April 12, 2025
About the author
Osamu Dazai
1,437 books10.4k followersOsamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.