is a 2009 novel by Kenzaburō Ōe. It was published in hardcover by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

on 15 December 2009. It was published in paperback in 2012. An English translation by

Deborah Boliver Boehm Deborah Boliver Boehm is a journalist, travel writer, editor and the former editor of Eastwest magazine. She also works as a translator. Boehm moved to Japan to attend college in Kyoto in 1970. She was a student of Japanese language and culture a ...

was published in 2015. The novel is the fifth in a series with the main character of Kogito Choko, who can be considered Ōe's literary alter ego. The novel was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

Plot

The novel takes place partially in Tokyo but is primarily set in the forests of Shikoku and Kogito Choko's family home located in his hometown village in Shikoku. As a child in World War II, Kogito watched his father drown in a river during World War II. He returns to Shikoku in search of a red leather case which he believes contains documents that will answer the mysteries behind his father's life and death. He plans to use these documents to form the base of his new novel, which will be his final work.

Publication

The novel was published in hardcover by

on 15 December 2009. It was published in paperback on 14 December 2012 by Kodansha Bunko, a paperback imprint of Kodansha. The novel was translated into English by

and published by

Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...

on 6 October 2015.

Reception

Translation

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' called the novel "vintage Oe: provocative, doubtful without being cynical, elegant without being precious." '' Publishers Weekly'' wrote, "Oe's deceptively tranquil idiom scans the violent history of postwar Japan and its present-day manifestations, in the end finding redemption." Writing for '' The New York Times Book Review'',

Janice P. Nimura Janice P. Nimura is an American author. Her book ''The Doctors Blackwell'' was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2021 calendar year on May 9, 2022. The awards highlight ...

gave the novel a favourable review, writing, "True Oe devotees may find this thrill in "Death by Water," but thrilling or not, it remains a thoughtful reprise of a lifetime of literary endeavor." Colin Dwyer of NPR lamented the novel's "tendency to repeat itself, action that amounts to little more than a play's stage direction and a translation that can get a bit stilted" but concluded that it is "worth the extra effort."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Death by Water 2009 Japanese novels Novels by Kenzaburō Ōe Novels set in Japan Novels set in Tokyo Kodansha books Novels about writers First-person narrative novels