Set in Japan during and after the Second World War, Grass for My Pillow is the story of of Shokichi Hamada, a conscientious objector who dodges military service by simply disappearing from
society, taking to the country as an itinerant peddler until the end of the war in 1945. Twenty years later, Hamada works as a clerk at a conservative university, his war resistance a dark
secret of the past that present-day events force into the light, confronting him with unexpected consequences of his refusal to conform. Maruya's masterpiece is an unusual story of a deeply
taboo subject in twentieth- century Japanese society: resistance to the draft in World War II. First published in Japanese in 1966, this debut novel by the critically acclaimed author of
Singular Rebellion creates an unparalleled portrait of a man at odds with his society, and with himself.
