The Key

A husband and wife each write in their diary, never knowing if it is being read by the other.

Ikuko and her husband are deeply in love but have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other’s desires. When Ikuko finds the key to her husband’s diary she ignores it, but she does begin to keep a diary of her own. Both parties start to set down in writing the evolution of their sex life and their deepest, most private desires. Who is reading whose diary? Who knows what? So begins an extended erotic game of lust, jealousy and manipulation.

‘A story about sex and marriage that is as explicit as any novel on the theme since Lady Chatterley's Lover’ The Times

'Sensational and serious' New York Times

Author: Junichiro Tanizaki

Publisher: Vintage Classics

Released Date: 2025

ISBN: 9780099289999