Four sisters live in dilapidated houses, the daughters of a once-great merchant family of Osaka.

Each of the women navigates her own complex relationship to the fading lustre of the Makioka family name, in the years leading up to the Second World War. Rich with breathtaking descriptions of ancient customs and an ever-changing natural world, Tanizaki evokes in poignant detail a long-lost way of life even as it withers under the harsh glare of modernity.

'An exquisite novel about four sisters living though a turbulent decade... I'd put it in the 10 greatest books of the 20th century' David Mitchell

'A classic novel of a whole country about to turn on the terrible hinge of the war into modernity; its tone is elegiac and bleak' Observer

• We started tracking this book on December 8, 2011.
• This book was £6.74 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 49 times in the past 5,018 days.
• The current price of this book is £0.99 last checked 13 hours ago.
• The lowest price to date was £0.99 last reached on September 2, 2025.
• This book has been £0.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £8.99 last reached on November 19, 2024.
• This book has been £8.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionHistorical FictionAustralian & Oceanian
• Literature & FictionHistorical FictionGerman
• Literature & FictionHistorical FictionJapanese

• Publication Date: January 19, 2010
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 562 Pages
• File Size: 38 KB