安部工房　砂の女Abe Kobo The Woman in the Dunes

This is the first edition cover of The Woman in the Dunes, which was designed by the Japanese artist (洋画家） Yasuo Kazuki (香月泰男).

The Woman in the Dunes is a novel published in 1962 by Japanese author Abe Kobo, he often be known as the “Kafka of Japan”. This is not only because Abe frequently employs plants, animals, and insects as metaphors in his works, but also because his works embody a Kafka style of absurdity and the theme of “alienation” of modern people, which is come from humanity’s unable to integrate in modern society. In Kazuki’s cover design, the stippled brushstroke of his oil paint also foreshadows the protagonist’s fate of being “swallowed up” in the dune.