Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness · Four Short Novels

The Nobel Prize–winning “master of the bizarre plunges the reader into a world of tortured imagination” in this four-novella collection ( Library Journal ).

In this startling quartet of his most provocative stories, the multiple prize-winning author of A Personal Matter reaffirms his reputation as “a supremely gifted writer” ( The Washington Post ).

In The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away , a self-absorbed narrator on his deathbed drifts off to the comforting strains of a cantata as he recalls a blistering childhood of militarism, sacrifice, humiliation, and revenge—a tale that is questioned by everyone who knew him. In Prize Stock , winner of the Akutagawa Prize, a black American flier is downed in a Japanese village during World War II, where the local children see him as some rare find—exotic and forbidden. In Aghwee the Sky Monster , the floating ghost of a baby inexplicably haunts a young man on the first day of his first job. And in the title story, a devoted father believes he is the only link between his mentally challenged son and reality.

“[A] remarkable book.” — The Washington Post

“Ōe is definitely one of the Modern Masters.” —Seattlepi.com