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大江 健三郎
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The Silent Cry Paperback – November 8, 2016

English Edition by Kenzaburo Oe (著), John Bester (翻訳)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 49 ratings
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The Silent Cry follows two brothers who return to their ancestral home, a village in densely forested Western Japan. After decades of separation, the reunited men are each preoccupied by their own personal crises. One brother grapples with the recent suicide of his dearest friend, the birth of his disabled son, and his wife's increasing alcoholism. The other brother sets out to incite an uprising among the local youth against the disintegration of the community's culture and economy due to the imposing franchise of a Korean businessman nicknamed the "Emperor of the Supermarkets". Both brothers live in the shadow of the mysteries surrounding the untimely deaths of their older brother and younger sister, as well as their great-grandfather's political heroism. When long-kept family secrets are revealed, the brothers' strained bond is pushed to its breaking-point and their lives are irrevocably changed. Considered Oe's most essential work by the Nobel Prize committee, The Silent Cry is as powerfully relevant today as it was when first published in 1967.
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  1. Print length
    394 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grove Pr
  4. Publication date
    November 8, 2016
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    080212478X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802124784
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

"[The Silent Cry] allows us a glimpse of Oe's narrative mastery." --Nobel Prize citation

"Somehow--and this is what gives his art such unquestionable stature--Oe manages to smuggle a comic thread in all this tragedy." --Independent

"A new pinnacle in post-war Japanese fiction." --Yukio Mishima

"Oe, in the range of hope and despair he covers, seems to me to have in him a touch of Dostoevsky." --Henry Miller

About the Author

Kenzaburo Oe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." He is the author of numerous books, including The Changeling; Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age; Hiroshima Notes; A Personal Matter; and Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, among others.

Product Details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Pr; Reissue edition (November 8, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 394 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 080212478X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802124784
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 49 ratings

About the author

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大江 健三郎

大江 健三郎

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Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎 Ōe Kenzaburō?, born 31 January 1935) is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism. Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".

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John Ferone
5.0 out of 5 stars Great service
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2023
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Product in 😌 shape. Accurate. description. Prompt service. and shipping
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Daniel Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in Germany on September 8, 2017
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By far my favorite Japanese novel. Oe has a very powerful voice, his characters breath an unbreathable air, say unspeakable things and outlive death and suffering with complete indifference. Beautiful.
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VEENA SINGH
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2023
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It's an excellent book by a Japanese author. The way author tells the story giving analogies was just beautiful. He used variety of analogies, and it seemed to me that he had lived and experienced each one of them. I strongly recommend this book.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Blah
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2018
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I've thought long and hard about what to say concerning this modern Japanese novel. I ought to have loved it or at least admired it because it was written by a prominent Nobel prize winner, praised by many. However, the book left me ambivalent. I cared not for the writing, which seemed to me to be a stream of consciousness with no purpose. I cared not for the story nor the characters. I probably "missed" the entire point of the novel although there are some simplistic themes: are the old days really better than modern day? can one really go home again? My question: will this book ever end? After 394 pages, it did; wrapped up in a tiny neat little package like 75% of other novels. 394 pages
6 people found this helpful
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