Thirst for Love
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Thirst for Love (or 愛の渇き, Ai no Kawaki) is a 1950 novel by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
The novel centers on the experience of Etsuko, a woman who has moved into the house of her in-laws following the death of her husband Ryosuke from typhoid. The plot deals with her physically incestuous relationship with her father-in-law (Yakichi) which both repulses and numbs her, and the romantic feelings she develops for the family's gardener, a much younger man named Saburo.
At times lyrical, and culminating in a particularly violent climax, the novel deals with themes which are prevalent throughout many of Mishima's other works, including unrequited sexual longing and the desire to inflict pain upon the object of one's love.
Thirst for Love was first published in English in 1969.
