A Personal Matter

kenzaburō Ōe john nathan

Kenzaburō Ōe, the winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, is internationally acclaimed as one of the most important and influential post-World War II writers, known for his powerful accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and his own struggle to come to terms with a mentally handicapped son. The Swedish Academy lauded Ōe for his "poetic force [that] creates an imagined world where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."

His most personal book, A Personal Matter, is the story of Bird, a frustrated intellectual in a failing marriage whose utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth to a brain-damaged child.

Genres fictionjapanjapanese literatureclassicsnobel prizeliteraturenovelsasian literature20th centuryliterary fiction

165 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1964

This edition

Format: 165 pages, Paperback
Published: January 13, 1994 by Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802150615
ASIN: 0802150616
Language: English

About the author

kenzaburō Ōe

Kenzaburō Ōe (大江健三郎), is a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, engage with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, 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."