Die schlafenden Schönen

A man on the threshold of old age is introduced by a friend to a unique type of brothel. It is intended for older men and offers young women in a deep sleep. Eguchi spends several nights in this house, with increasingly shorter intervals, alongside various young women and girls, who are described as reserved yet precise, sensual and discreet. Each one is different. Each evokes different fantasies, different memories of women that Eguchi has known in his life, including his own wife and daughters, lovers, and one-night acquaintances. In the end, a fatal complication arises. With his novel, Nobel laureate Kawabata (1899-1972) has done nothing more than capture this unusual yet simple fundamental situation, making it memorable and thereby elevating it into a story of love and death, of youth and old age.