内容紹介
Deep River is the one of Shusaku Endo’s most powerful works with new insights into Christianity and its meaning to the Japanese. Five ordinary Japanese each on a spiritual quest gather on the banks of the Ganges in India. Isobe, jarred by the death of the wife he barely noticed during her lifetime, is searching for proof of her reincarnation. Kiguchi, a survivor of the horrific jungle fighting in Burma during World War 2, wishes to bring peace to the souls of his war comrades. Numada, recovering from illness, is an author of children’s books about animals and nature who seeks communion with nature. The beautiful but often cruel Mitsuko has come searching one again for Otsu, the pious Christian she first seduced during their college days. Leading the tour is Enami, a young man torn between his own feelings for India and his compassion for his troubled countrymen. Endo ruthlessly probes the moral dilemmas facing each and paints a vivid picture of the river and its deep significance to the Indian culture and its surprising effect on the five tourists.
著者について
Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) was the most popular of the great twentieth century Japanese writers in Japan. Known for his rough humor and unwavering moral convictions he derived from his Catholic faith, he focused his writing on the moral issues facing each individual within society as well as those facing society as a whole. He graduated from Keio University with a degree in French literature and subsequently spent several years in postgraduate study in Lyons. Among the literary prizes he was awarded are the Akutagawa, the Mainichi Cultural, the Shincho, and the Tanizaki prizes.