Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was a sensationalist, a militarist, a self-publicist, a contrarian, a charlatan, a joker, a poser, a paradox and a hypocrite - but he was also a literary genius. Nominated several times for the Nobel Prize, his work remains one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century Japanese literature, an enduring, provocative and disturbing force probing the strangeness and fragility of our existence in a violent, unpredictable world. In Exquisite Nothingness: The Novels of Yukio Mishima , David Vernon explores the full range of Mishima's achievement, with a chapter devoted to each of his major novels, including established classics like Confessions of a Mask , Thirst for Love , Forbidden Colours , The Temple of the Golden Pavilion , The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and the vast final quartet The Sea of Fertility , as well as startling works only recently available to English readers: the captivating anti-nuclear science fiction Beautiful Star and the surreal satire on modern times Life for Sale . More than half a century since his shocking suicide, Exquisite Nothingness aims to reposition Mishima's art at the centre of his controversial legacy, acclaiming its depth, beauty and devastating emotional power.