Book description
Set in a remote fishing village in Japan,
The Sound of Waves
is a timeless story of first love. It tells of Shinji, a young
fisherman and Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in
the village. Shinji is entranced at the sight of Hatsue in the twilight
on the beach and they fall in love. When the villagers' gossip threatens
to divide them, Shinki must risk his life to prove his worth. Yukio
Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of
complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the
same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He
wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he
performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including
The Sound of Waves, Enjo
which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask
and Thirst for Love
and the short story collections Death in Midsummer
and Acts of Worship
. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy
, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of
The Sea of Fertility
in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25
November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel
, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual
suicide) at the age of forty-five.
