海角大神

In addition to being noted for his prodigious literary accomplishments, 1994 Nobel Prize-winning Kenzabur艒 艑e is known for being politically outspoken. He made international headlines again during this year鈥檚 70th anniversary of the Nagasaki/Hiroshima bombings. His esteemed name and reputation alone ought to inspire readers to seek out his latest-title-in-translation, Death by Water, which lands in the US six years after its initial Japanese publication.

And so they should. My advice to you: Buy, borrow, or steal this book 鈥� and then set aside some substantial reading time. This could be the densest and most rewarding 432 pages you鈥檒l experience this year.

For first-time 艑e-readers, 鈥淒eath by Water鈥� is an intriguing mystery-of-sorts that easily stands alone. An octogenarian writer, Kogito Choko, is finally given access to the contents of a red leather trunk, which he believes will reveal the circumstances under which his father drowned in a small boat during a summer storm just before the end of World War II. As requested, his younger sister Asa held on to the trunk until the 10th anniversary of their mother鈥檚 death. Choko is certain the trunk holds answers that will allow him to finish his 鈥渄rowning novel ... a definitive novel about [his] father鈥� that he began almost half a century ago. He returns to his childhood home in Shikoku from Tokyo, expecting 鈥� at the very least 鈥� some sense of closure.

With Asa鈥檚 introduction and encouragement, Choko agrees to share the process of discovery and completion with a theater troupe whose founding director has been successfully staging Choko鈥檚 body of work. The hoped-for collaboration ends abruptly when Choko learns that the trunk鈥檚 contents are less than illuminating and he abandons his novel to return to Tokyo. Extenuating family circumstances send him back to Shikoku, this time with his eldest son. By previous agreement, two women from the theater group have moved into the family home, and the drama 鈥� enlightening, convoluted, surreal 鈥� continues.

For 艑e aficionados, get ready for a wild ride of epic proportions: dig deep into your thinking caps, line up your other 艑e titles, pull up your search engines, because you鈥檝e got gratifying work to do. This is 艑e鈥檚 fifth novel in which Kogito Choko takes center stage; for decades, Choko has been 艑e鈥檚 literary alter ego with countless autobiographical overlaps. Shikoku origins, publishing history, prematurely lost father, brain-damaged son with musical genius 鈥� all that and more is shared by writer and protagonist here. Ghosts loom, not just on the page, but from 艑e鈥檚 real life 鈥� the late brother-in-law in this fiction was, in reality, Juzo Itami, director of the cult classic 鈥淭ampopo,鈥� who also leaped to his suicide. (艑e鈥檚 novel "The Changeling," published in Japanese in 2000 and in English in 2010, eerily explored the tragedy.) Deciphering what鈥檚 "real," and what鈥檚 not, in "Death by Water," creates a fascinating meta-narrative.

Woven into 艑e鈥檚 personal story 鈥� real and imagined 鈥� is Japan鈥檚 troubled history, from ultranationalism to Emperor-worship to heinous war crimes. A powerful government official uncle and his damaged niece become stand-ins for Japan鈥檚 use of sexual slavery during war, a practice vehemently denied decades later despite solid evidence to the contrary. Literary figures appear to enhance story and history both, from childhood reminiscences of 鈥淭he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn鈥� to 鈥淭he Wonderful Adventures of Nils,鈥� to the life and work of Natsume S艒seki (considered Japan鈥檚 greatest modern novelist), to personal exchanges with the late scholar Edward Said with whom 艑e shared a close friendship. Choko channels Said鈥檚 posthumously published final title, 鈥淥n Late Style,鈥� during an impromptu interview while 艑e pays further homage to Said with the title of his 2013 novel (his sixth featuring Choko, not yet published in English), 鈥淚n Late Style.鈥�

Presented as an absorbing, complex collage of multi-layered prose, poetic references, epistolary exchanges, memories, and dreams, 鈥淒eath鈥� demands attention and diligence. 艑e 鈥� always a bit of a self-referential comic 鈥� acknowledges the necessary languid pace by repeating certain pertinent details including names and relationships, albeit with slight variations in descriptions as if to remind us that nothing stays the same. His penchant for such mutable words as 鈥渢ransition,鈥� 鈥渢ransformation,鈥� 鈥渢ransmogrify鈥� can鈥檛 be ignored.

If 鈥淒eath鈥� has faults, these lie outside 艑e鈥檚 purview: Translator Deborah Boliver Boehm seems to lack the fluidity of scholar/professor John Nathan who has rendered three previous 艑e novels into English. Clumsily inserted colloquialisms 鈥� 鈥渟ettled into my digs,鈥� for example 鈥� seem incongruous with 艑e鈥檚 original intentions. As if all too aware, Choko comments about 鈥渨hich translators are better than others,鈥� and that 鈥渇or a bilingual reader it can also be interesting to take note of the striking discrepancies between the original and the Japanese translations, which occur more often than you might think.鈥� Such misinterpretations and digressions notwithstanding, that 鈥淒eath鈥� is now accessible promises to be an essential revelation.

Terry Hong writes BookDragon, a book blog for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.