How close can one get to the holiness of literature that modern times have lost? Set in 15th century France, where heretical beliefs began to storm. Meeting an alchemist striving to create the philosopher’s stone leads a learned priest to heresy. A hermaphrodite living in a cave, sacrament in the times of witch burnings, and that dazzling moment when the soul and body unite. With skillful writing and brilliant literary pursuit, the author was praised as the second coming of Yukio Mishima. The Eclipse is the shocking debut novel of the youngest winner of the Akutagawa prize at the time, the gateway to success in Japanese literature.