The Face of Another

( Japanese - Tanin no Kao / 他人の顔 - 1964 )

novel by Kobo Abe

translated by Dale E.Saunders

Published: Knopf - hardback - 1966 ( 1st US )
ISBN: none

Weidenfeld & Nicolson - hardback - 1969 ( 1st UK )
ISBN: 0297177052 / 9780297177050

Charles E.Tuttle - paperback - 1966
ISBN: none ( 4805301201 / 9784805301203 in a later printing )

Penguin Books - paperback - 1972
ISBN: 0140034943 / 9780140034943

Perigee Books ( G.P.Putnam's Sons ) - paperback - 1980
ISBN: 0399504842 / 9780399504846

Kodansha International Ltd. - paperback - 1992
ISBN: 4770016344 / 9784770016348

Vintage - paperback - 2003
ISBN: 9780375726538

Penguin - paperback - 2006
ISBN: 0141188537 / 9780141188539

Synopsis
A plastics scientist loses his face in an accident and proceeds to obtain a new face for himself. With a new 'mask', the protagonist sees the world in a new way and even goes so far as to have a clandestine affair with his estranged wife. There is also a subplot following a hibakusha woman who has suffered burns to the right side of her face.

Awards
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Filmed in 1966, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.