-
No Longer Human
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
-
-
Beautiful and Sad Recording
- By Mado on 08-11-22
By: Osamu Dazai
-
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A band of savage 13-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
-
-
Unsettling writing, flawed reading
- By Erez on 11-22-12
By: Yukio Mishima
-
I Am a Cat
- By: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
-
-
Great performance!
- By mz on 04-03-20
By: Soseki Natsume, and others
-
The Stranger
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albert Camus' The Stranger is one of the most widely read novels in the world, with millions of copies sold. It stands as perhaps the greatest existentialist tale ever conceived, and is certainly one of the most important and influential books ever produced. Now, for the first time, this revered masterpiece is available as an unabridged audio production.
-
-
Top notch translation
- By Maggie on 06-26-11
By: Albert Camus
-
Child of God
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
-
-
Soaring description of base depravity
- By Aunt Crabby on 10-31-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
-
Sympathy for Insects
- By David S. Mathew on 10-17-17
By: Franz Kafka, and others
-
The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
-
-
Beautiful and Sad Recording
- By Mado on 08-11-22
By: Osamu Dazai
-
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A band of savage 13-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
-
-
Unsettling writing, flawed reading
- By Erez on 11-22-12
By: Yukio Mishima
-
I Am a Cat
- By: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
-
-
Great performance!
- By mz on 04-03-20
By: Soseki Natsume, and others
-
The Stranger
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albert Camus' The Stranger is one of the most widely read novels in the world, with millions of copies sold. It stands as perhaps the greatest existentialist tale ever conceived, and is certainly one of the most important and influential books ever produced. Now, for the first time, this revered masterpiece is available as an unabridged audio production.
-
-
Top notch translation
- By Maggie on 06-26-11
By: Albert Camus
-
Child of God
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
-
-
Soaring description of base depravity
- By Aunt Crabby on 10-31-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
-
Sympathy for Insects
- By David S. Mathew on 10-17-17
By: Franz Kafka, and others
-
Being There
- By: Jerzy Kosinski
- Narrated by: Dustin Hoffman
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman gives an understated and exemplary performance of this satiric look at the unreality of American media culture. Chance, the enigmatic gardener, becomes Chauncey Gardiner after getting hit by a limo belonging to a Wall Street tycoon. The whirlwind that follows brings Chance to his new status of political policy advisor and possible vice presidential candidate. His garden-variety political responses, inspired by television, become heralded as visionary, and he is soon a media icon.
-
-
Darkly Funny
- By Ilana on 07-15-12
By: Jerzy Kosinski
-
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hopeless stutterer, taunted by his schoolmates, Mizoguchi feels utterly alone until he becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto. But he quickly becomes obsessed with the temple's beauty, and cannot live in peace as long as it exists.
-
-
A difficult and disturbing paradox
- By Dan Harlow on 04-18-14
By: Yukio Mishima
-
Audition
- By: Ryu Murakami, Ralph McCarthy - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gloriously over-the-top tale, Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son ever since his wife died seven years before, finally decides it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that, in order to attract the perfect wife, they do a casting call for a movie they don't intend to produce. As the resumes pile up, only one of the applicants catches Aoyama's attention - Yamasaki Asami - a striking young former ballerina with a mysterious past. But she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagines her to be.
-
-
Adequate?
- By Evan Runyon on 01-04-22
By: Ryu Murakami, and others
-
The Sense of an Ending
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Andrew Lim on 06-14-21
By: Julian Barnes
-
Death in Venice
- A New Translation by Michael Henry Heim
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tells the story of Gustave von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.
-
-
For the Love of Language
- By William on 10-21-06
By: Thomas Mann
-
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eliot Rosewater, a drunk volunteer fireman and president of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation, is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature, with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. The result is Kurt Vonnegut's funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to.
-
-
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth.
- By Darwin8u on 03-27-14
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Kokoro
- By: Natsume Soseki
- Narrated by: Matt Shea
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The subject of Kokoro, which can be translated as 'the heart of things' or as 'feeling,' is the delicate matter of the contrast between the meanings the various parties of a relationship attach to it. In the course of this exploration, Soseki brilliantly describes different levels of friendship, family relationships, and the devices by which men attempt to escape from their fundamental loneliness. The novel sustains throughout its length something approaching poetry, and it is rich in understanding and insight.
-
-
The Heart Of Things, Relationships & Feelings
- By Sara on 04-27-15
By: Natsume Soseki
-
The Woman in the Dunes
- By: Kobo Abe
- Narrated by: Julian Cihi
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman. Together, their fates become intertwined as they work side-by-side at this Sisyphean task.
-
-
Bought this book on pewds suggestion. Liked it.
- By Abhigyan on 11-24-18
By: Kobo Abe
-
A Happy Death
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first novel, A Happy Death, written when he was in his early 20s and retrieved from his private papers following his death in 1960, Albert Camus laid the foundation for The Stranger, focusing in both works on an Algerian clerk who kills a man in cold blood. But he also revealed himself to an extent that he never would in his later fiction. For if A Happy Death is the study of a rule-bound being shattering the fetters of his existence, it is also a remarkably candid portrait of its author as a young man.
-
-
Camus Secret Masterpiece
- By Samuel Cohen on 08-03-19
By: Albert Camus
-
Emergency Skin
- Forward
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Jason Isaacs
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy. An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago.
-
-
Try to avoid getting clubbed by the message...
- By Chris on 04-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Post Office
- A Novel
- By: Charles Bukowski
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than 12 years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers.
-
-
Not his best, but still Bukowski
- By james on 02-05-18
By: Charles Bukowski
-
The Handmaid's Tale
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all-controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred is a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name.
-
-
Ridiculously stupid & gloomy
- By CW in ATX on 02-20-20
By: Margaret Atwood
Publisher's Summary
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
Critic Reviews

Editor's Pick
The gut-wrenching effort to belong
"Born of alienation and touch of depravity, No Longer Human gets right down to the brass tacks of existential crisis. It is disturbing and deeply sad in many ways, but also unusually reassuring because it is such a raw representation of a person struggling with their flaws, face first."
—Michael D., Audible Editor
More from the same
What listeners say about No Longer Human
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr. O
- 11-09-19
well
it made me miserable. but I expected as much so it's definitely what I paid for.
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael - Audible Editor
- 07-19-17
Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
My girlfriend (who is French) gave this to me in book form for my birthday, and then I realized that Audible recently added it so I secretly listened to it instead.
I joke with her a lot about her French philosophical perspectives, you know 'laissez-faire', 'je ne sais pas' type stuff. And she talks a lot about the cultural differences between France and the States, especially when it comes to socializing. She refers to the social scene in the States as "The Masquerade", which I feel is pretty accurate.
Anyway! I should have expected this book would make some sort of Albert Camus-esque social commentary, but since it's from a Japanese author I didn't immediately jump to that conclusion. But it boy o boy is it similar, just like the other reviewer mentioned.
I think it really works in its own way though. Osamu Dazai gives his character a nagging need that is compelling and drives both the conflict and the unnerving ennui-imbued voice throughout.
There is something reassuring about getting inside the head of someone so troubled about their social identity. The struggle is intensely, intimately relateable, and that I think, is what great writing is about. It helps ease some of the larger existential anxiety, because you get the feeling that you aren't the only one.
Also, as a Japanese book, translated into English and narrated by what sounds like an American, you can't really ask for a better performance.
62 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-12-20
Good book, but disagree with MC's behaviour.
While reading this book, I could truly relate to the action of the MC. He placed himself in what we called safe zone and avoid incurring pain to others. In consequent, it caused him to carry other people's burden and misery.
The author, Dazai, perfectly described the thought process of the character throughout the journey and sometimes added some of his own advices to the MC.
I would not recommend this book to the young readers since it can lead them into wrongdoing due to MC, somewhat I said, childish behaviour.
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anthony Larman
- 03-14-20
sad but an interesting perspective
the book is sad there is no doubt about that but yet it does you an interesting perspective in the forms of what takes place in alcoholism and depression and somebody who's pain during suicide along with the fact how they're wondering how they themselves can exist in society and the pressures of society has put on them to exist
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason
- 01-08-20
Well written terrible person study.
If I just happened to read this book without noticing it was written by a Japanese fellow I’d have assumed it was written by or at least about a trump supporting boomer. Kind of terrifying. He’s a terrible person, the kind of person that’s a failure in everything not that he didn’t have privilege or opportunity. But liked to blame everyone one else for his problems as he sank deeper and deeper into depression and alcoholism. I didn’t dislike the book, it’s very well written and enjoyable to a point, but I hate the character on a ‘I know that guy’ level.
Worth a read especially if your like me and realize this books been adopted into almost every form of Japanese artist medium including one of my favorite manga horror artist Junji Ito’s ‘No Longer Human’.
Just know if you find this character identifiable you might need a hug and a therapist.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Axel Sopp
- 07-12-19
The more melancholic L'Étranger
This is one of those books that make you question everything, once more. It is beautifully tragic, especially when reading about Dazai's life after the book.
Sidenote: very good foreword as well.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Parola138
- 01-06-19
Great book
It surprised me that this book was written so long ago. It feels like it was written today. Very much, it reminded me of Albert Camus' 'The Stranger,' but in voice and attitude only- not in story. I liked the book so much I restarted it right again and had a second listen.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DailyReader!
- 06-18-19
MADE ME CRY
The book was amazing, the story ear catching and also very sad. The ending concluded the book very well with the epilogue provinding a a viewpoint from some time after the story takes place.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert Attaway
- 10-15-18
A Complex Book with A Monotone Narrator
There's no doubt that this is a complex story that weaves together a tale that is both depressing and insightful to the human experience. Just wish the narrator used more than 1 voice throughout the story.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicole F.
- 04-21-17
If Camus was Japanese
If you could sum up No Longer Human in three words, what would they be?
Camus in Japan
What other book might you compare No Longer Human to and why?
The Stranger. Our protagonist feels disconnected from humanity, leading him down a path of self destruction
If you could take any character from No Longer Human out to dinner, who would it be and why?
UGH... none... I'd be afraid of being hit up for a heavy bar tab... or worse.
Any additional comments?
It's a punch in the gut that you are glad you received. Like Trainspotting, this is not something for when you are depressed. But it is a ride I highly encourage everybody take.
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Charles Anderson
- 04-27-17
Disqualified as a Human Being
i am surprised and glad an audiobook was produced of No Longer Human in English in 2016. i for more japanese literature of this period is produced at such a high quality.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- thomas
- 06-12-21
Great
I read the graphic novel first before listening to this and I finished in one sitting, beautiful and depressing
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mike Wasowski
- 03-28-21
a rollercoaster
this book is extremely sad and melancholy, but is also al thought provoker and very real, i did have to relisten to a segment occasionally when I'd loose track but that's probably more due to my own fault.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- neddy
- 09-17-20
love it very honest
loved it very honest truthful to the flaws of humans, loved the narrator as well
-
Overall
-
Story

- Tyler Durden
- 05-31-18
Born miserable and selfish apparently.
Self-centred, pathetic, depressed, privileged idiot. Nothing interesting or relatable about his miserable life. I don't see any value in reading this book. The story is completely pointless and doesn't shed much light into anything. It's just a young guy who seems to have been born with a mental illness. The whole time he is miserable for no good reason. Couldnt empathise with him or understand why he's constantly unhappy despite being born into privilege and even getting plenty of women throwing themselves at him.
Waste of time.
7 people found this helpful