
Kobo Abe (1924-1993) was one of Japan's most prominent contemporary writers. Born in Japan but raised in Manchuria, he is perhaps best known for his 1962 novel, The Woman in the Dunes, though he was also a prominent screenwriter, producer and director. Like the works of Beckett and Ionesco, Abe's plays address universal and contemporary concerns, often with an eye for the absurd.