Personal Matter

From the Nobel Prize-winning author: "e;One of the great short novels of the 20th century"e; (The Wall Street Journal). Internationally acclaimed as one of the world's most influential writers, Kenzaburo Oe brings to the fore the post-WWII rage and anxiety of a decorous society in this "e;deathly black comedy . . . dripping with nuclear terror"e; (The Japan Times). Bird is an antisocial twenty-seven-year-old intellectual hanging on to a failing marriage with whiskey. He dreams of going to Africa where the sky sprawls with possibilities. Then, as though walloped by a massive invisible fist, Bird's Utopian fantasies are shattered when his wife gives birth to what he calls their "e;monster baby."e; Now, Bird is left with one question: How can he and his wife spend the rest of their lives with this damaged thing clinging to their backs?As shameful, disgraceful, and unthinkable a desire as it is, Bird has an answer. Not sealed. Not just yet. Not before Bird flees on a bender of indiscriminate (and frustratingly impotent) sex, hard liquor, self-delusion, and most terrifying of all self-discovery. "e;Very close to a perfect contemporary novel."e; The New York Times "e;An astonishing novel."e; Mother Jones