Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) is one of Japan's greatest writers, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1968 for "writing that expresses with great feeling the essence of the Japanese way of thinking." The book includes the stories “The Dancer from Izu”, “The Lake”, and the novel “The Old Capital”. The novel “Sleeping Beauties” and short stories, still unknown to the general reader, are also published. The translation of the writer’s Nobel speech “Born by the Beauty of Japan” is published in a new, more advanced edition.