A Quiet Life

Nobel Prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe is one of the most original and important writers of our time, and nowhere is his genius more evident that in A Quiet Life--an uncanny blend of the real with the imagined, of memoir with fiction. The book is narrated by Ma-Chan, a young woman caught up in an unusual family situation. Her father is a famous novelist and her older brother, although severely brain damaged, posseses a magical gift for music.