Synopsis "the changeling"

Oe introduces Kogito Choko, a writer in his early sixties, as he rekindles a childhood friendship with his estranged brother-in-law, the renowned filmmaker Goro Hanawa. Goro sends Kogito a trunk of tapes he has recorded of reflections about their friendship, but as Kogito is listening one night, he hears something odd. I'm going to head over to the Other Side now, Goro says, and then Kogito hears a loud thud. After a moment of silence, Goro's voice continues: But don't worry, I'm not going to stop communicating with you. Moments later, Kogito's wife rushes in; Goro has jumped to his death. With that, Kogito begins a far-ranging search to understand what drove his brother-in-law to suicide. His quest takes him from the forests of southern Japan to the washed-out streets of Berlin, where Kogito confronts the ghosts from his own past and that of his lifelong, but departed, friend.

Kenzaburo Oe

(Author)

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Kenzaburo Oe (Ōse, Shikoku, 1935 - 2023) was an influential Japanese writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994. He moved to Tokyo in 1954 to study French Literature at the University of Tokyo, where he was influenced by Sartre and existentialist philosophy. His extensive work, marked by existential anguish, post-Hiroshima Japanese identity, and the experience with his son Hikari's disability, merges grotesque realism with profound humanism. Ōe was a fierce critic of Japanese militarism and an advocate for pacifist values. His literature, often dark but always hopeful, explores human fragility and resilience in the face of the absurd.

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