Natsume Soseki's 1908 novel "The Miner" has often been regarded as an oddity. It stands aloof both in subject matter and style from the two great "trilogies" Soseki penned between 1908 and 1914.
The Miner, by Natsume Soseki, Translated by Jay Rubin.264 pagesAardvark Bureau, Fiction.
Both analytical and darkly humorous, "The Miner" describes how a young student, in flight from his home in Tokyo, is picked up by a recruiter to work in a mine, and his experience of the grim working conditions there.