Layered and reflexive, Nobel winner Oeas ("The Changeling" novel concerns itself
with an elderly writer, Kogito Choko, whose inability to write athe drowning no
vel, a a fictional account of his fatheras death by drowning, threatens both his
health and his plans to provide for his family after his death. As a child, Cho
koa then called Kogiia witnessed his fatheras ill-fated boat trip in the Shikoku
forest region of his childhood. When he revisits the forests and delves into th
e areaas history and folklore at his sister Asaas invitation, he discovers not o
nly other witnesses to his fatheras voyagea including a nationalist former disci
ple of his dadasa but that athe materials in the red leather trunka required for
his research were destroyed by his mother long ago. Bereft, Choko finds himself
cooperating with an experimental theater troupe, who wish to adapt his body of
work for the stage using the visionary Unaikoas athrowing the dead dogsa method,
whereupon meta-narrative discussion and the throwing of stuffed dogs occur on s
tage. Chokoas disappointment over the uselessness of the red leather trunkas con
tents drives him to lash out at his adult, intellectually disabled composer son,
Akari, and when his wife, Chikashi, undergoes treatment for a serious illness,
sheas most concerned about this unprecedented rift between father and son. Told
in echoing and overlapping accounts of conversations, telephone calls, and stage
performances, Oeas deceptively tranquil idiom scans the violent history of post
war Japan and its present-day manifestations, in the end finding redemption. "Ag
ent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (Oct.)" Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly Used
with permission.
