The Decay of the Angel (4): The Sea of ​​Fertility Tetralogy

Published by Dar Al-Adab (and translated into Arabic by Kamel Youssef Hussein), The Decay of the Angel (Tennin Gosui) brings Yukio Mishima’s iconic The Sea of Fertility tetralogy to a devastating and philosophical climax. Set in 1970, the story finds Shigekuni Honda in his eighties, grappling with the physical decay of old age. Honda encounters Toru Yasue, a seventeen-year-old orphan working at a harbor signal station. Believing Toru possesses the birthmarks of reincarnation, Honda adopts him as his sole heir. However, Toru proves to be a cold, manipulative sociopath who turns Honda's life into a nightmare, forcing the old man to question whether his lifelong pursuit of reincarnation was merely a tragic delusion. The novel culminates in Honda's pilgrimage to visit the aged nun Satoko, leading to an astonishing existential meditation on memory, the void, and time.

It is a literary landmark completed by Mishima on the very morning of his famous ritual suicide (seppuku), offering readers an unforgettable finale on decay, aging, and existential illusion.

Ideal for readers of classical Japanese literature, followers of Mishima’s The Sea of Fertility series, and scholars exploring post-war existential fiction, Buddhist metaphysics, and psychological tragedy.