Recommendations based on Confessions of a Maskby Yukio Mishima

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

    by Yukio Mishima
    A young Buddhist monk's descent into obsession and tragedy, in a search for beauty and perfection.

    The protagonist, Mizoguchi, is the son of a consumptive Buddhist priest who lives and works on the remote Cape Nariu on the north coast of Honshū . As a child, the narrator lives with his uncle at ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Sound of Waves

    by Yukio Mishima
    A young fisherman's love story, set against the backdrop of a small fishing village.

    Shinji Kubo lives with his mother, a pearl diver, and his younger brother, Hiroshi. He and his mother support the family because Shinji's father died in World War II after the fishing boat he was on ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Spring Snow

    by Yukio Mishima
    A tale of forbidden love set in Japan's Meiji era, where societal norms and traditions clash with personal desires.

    The novel is set in the early years of the Taishō period with the reign of the Emperor Taishō , and is about the relationship between Kiyoaki Matsugae, the son of a rising nouveau-riche family, and ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Kokoro

    by Natsume Sōseki
    Story of an elderly man's search for companionship and solace amid loneliness and heartache.

    Part I – “Sensei and I” As the novel opens, the narrator has been left on his own in Kamakura after his friend, who invited him to vacation there, is called home by his family. One day, after ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Snow Country

    by Yasunari Kawabata
    A story of forbidden love between a Tokyo sophisticate and a geisha in the secluded depths of a mountain village.

    Snow Country is a stark tale of a love affair between a Tokyo dilettante and a provincial geisha that takes place in the remote hot spring (, onsen, ) town of Yuzawa . , (Kawabata did not mention the ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Sound and the Fury

    by William Faulkner
    Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.

    The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Kitchen

    by Banana Yoshimoto
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery and healing, exploring the kitchen of her dreams.

    From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a culinary teacher's assistant to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into the life of a young Japanese woman ... (Wikipedia)

  8. No Longer Human

    by Osamu Dazai
    A young man's struggles with emotional turmoil and suicidal ideation.

    Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human , this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a ... (Goodreads)

  9. Out

    by Natsuo Kirino
    Exploration of the dark side of modern society through the story of four female factory workers.

    The novel tells the tales of four women, working the graveyard shift at a Japanese bento factory. All four women live hard lives. Masako, the leader of the four women, feels completely alienated from ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Ficciones

    by Jorge Luis Borges
    A collection of short stories exploring the limits of the imagination.

    The seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his ... (Goodreads)

  11. Silk

    by Alessandro Baricco
    Adventure of a 19th century French trader who travels to Japan to find rare silkworm eggs.

    The novel tells the story of a French silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler named Hervé Joncour in 19th century France who travels to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Waiting for Godot

    by Samuel Beckett
    Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.

    Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Medea

    by Euripides
    Tragedy of a woman's vengeful wrath against her husband and his family.

    One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of ... (Goodreads)

  14. Doctor Glas

    by Hjalmar Söderberg
    A doctor struggles with his moral conscience when he becomes involved in a woman's marital problems.

    Stark, brooding, and enormously controversial when first published in 1905, this astonishing novel juxtaposes impressions of fin-de-siècle Stockholm against the psychological landscape of a man ... (Goodreads)

  15. Hunger

    by Knut Hamsun
    The story of a man's battle against poverty and his descent into near-madness.

    The novel's first-person protagonist, an unnamed vagrant with intellectual leanings, probably in his late twenties, wanders the streets of Norway's capital, Kristiania ( Oslo ), in pursuit of ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A collection of four works exploring the human psyche, morality, and existentialism through the lens of Russian society.

    The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg . He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. It ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Les Liaisons dangereuses

    by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
    An intricate game of love, lust and manipulation as two rival aristocrats scheme to outwit one another.

    The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous, married, and therefore inaccessible Madame de Tourvel, who is staying with Valmont's aunt while her husband is away on a court case. At ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Ariel

    by Sylvia Plath
    A collection of raw and intense poems that explore themes of death, femininity, and personal struggle.

    Sylvia Plath's celebrated collection. When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel . Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought the ... (Goodreads)

  19. The Tale of Genji

    by Murasaki Shikibu
    A classic Japanese novel about the romantic life of a nobleman and his various loves.

    The work recounts the life of, Hikaru Genji, , or "Shining Genji", the son of an ancient Japanese emperor , known to readers as Emperor Kiritsubo, and a low-ranking, but beloved concubine called ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Naked Lunch

    by William S. Burroughs
    Surrealist exploration of addiction, delusions, and reality.

    Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative without a clear plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant. The book begins with the ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  22. The Name of the Rose

    by Umberto Eco
    A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.

    In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Steppenwolf

    by Hermann Hesse
    The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.

    The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Oedipus Rex

    by Sophocles
    Tragic tale of a man's inescapable destiny and the consequences of his actions.

    Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi , concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Plague

    by Albert Camus
    A small town in Algeria is struck by a deadly plague, testing the courage and faith of its citizens.

    The book begins with an epigraph quoting Daniel Defoe , author of, A Journal of the Plague Year, . In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the ... (Wikipedia)

  26. On the Road

    by Jack Kerouac
    A young man's journey across America, seeking adventure and freedom.

    The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Sal Paradise, and his friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense of adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Castle

    by Franz Kafka
    Townspeople's surreal struggle against a mysterious ruling power.

    The protagonist, K., arrives in a village governed by a mysterious bureaucracy operating in a nearby castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he claims to be a land surveyor summoned by the ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Against Nature

    by Joris-Karl Huysmans
    A decadent exploration of art and beauty, challenging the conventions of society.

    The epigraph is a quotation from Jan van Ruysbroeck ('Ruysbroeck the Admirable'), the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic: Jean des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Trial

    by Franz Kafka
    A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.

    On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Iliad

    by Homer
    Epic tale of the Trojan War, depicting heroism and tragedy.

    Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, ... (Goodreads)