The Makioka sisters

The Makioka Sisters (細雪, Sasameyuki, "light snow") is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. It depicts the decline of the family's upper-middle-class, suburban lifestyle as the specter of World War II and Allied Occupation hangs over the novel. It was translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker, and published by Alfred A. Knopf. Patrick McCoy of the Japan Times described the book as being "Tolstoyan in length and scope."