The Changeling

Kenzaburō Ōe is one of those Nobel Laureates who enjoy high esteem in their own countries without ever finding a significant audience in the UK. Perhaps this explains why the English translation of his 2000 novel The Changeling has only just been published now - ten years later - with a translation by Deborah Boehm.

Unlike his compatriot Haruki Marukami, whose novels sometimes seem to look in at Japan from afar, Ōe's work, and this book in particular, are deeply rooted at home.

The Changeling is the story of a famous novelist, Kogito, and how he keeps a connection alive with his film director friend, Goro, who has recently killed himself by jumping off a building in the city. Goro has left behind a number of tapes and a tape machine - 'Tagame' - so that they can continue to have a dialogue of sorts between Kogito's present-day Japan and 'The Other Side'.

Present day is a fairly lose definition in this context and Kogito's reminiscences form a rich, winding, time-shifting narrative that never quite allows you to settle down into complacent page-turning. This is no criticism: Ōe's method turns Kogito's story into a tense and unnerving exploration of self-identity and memory - from the personal to the national.

At the heart of The Changeling is "THAT" an extraordinary event from the days of the post-war occupation that clouds everything. It is the central mystery of Kogito and Goro's lives as men and as artists. A mystery that sits alongside the wider Japanese mystery of how a whole country attempts to come to terms with its traumatic past.