Deep River (novel)

Deep River
	First edition
Author	Shūsaku Endō
Original title	深い河
Set in	India
Published	1993

Deep River (深い河, Fukai kawa) is a novel by Shūsaku Endō published in 1993. When he died in 1996, only two novels were chosen to be placed inside his coffin. Deep River was one of them.^{[citation needed]}

Plot summary

The story traces the journey of four

Ganges River

.

One of the tourists is Osamu Isobe. He is a middle-class manager whose wife has died of cancer. On her deathbed she asked him to look for her in a future reincarnation. His search takes him to India, even though he has doubts about reincarnation.

Kiguchi is haunted by wartime horrors in

Buddhist rituals performed in India for the souls of his friends in the Japanese army as well as his enemies. He is impressed by a foreign Christian

volunteer who helped his sick friend deal with tragic experiences during the war.

Numada has a deep love for animals ever since he was a child in

bird sanctuary

.

Mitsuko Naruse, after a failed marriage, realizes that she is a person incapable of love. She goes to India hoping to find the

nuns from the Missionaries of Charity

and begins to understand Otsu's idea of God.

Characters

Osamu Isobe, a middle manager who looks for a girl named Rajini Puniral, the potential reincarnation of his dead wife.
Mitsuko Naruse, a former housewife who takes a trip as a pilgrimage and also to see her ex-boyfriend Otsu, as atonement for mistreating him
Numada, a bird watcher who wants to set a bird in his possession free.
Kiguchi, a former WWII Imperial Japanese Army soldier.
Enami, the tour guide.
Mr. Sanjo, a photojournalist on honeymoon with his wife.
Mrs. Sanjo, his vapid new wife.
Augustine Otsu, Mitsuko's former boyfriend, now a Catholic priest in Varanasi.

Film adaption

A

Kyoko Kagawa plays Mrs. Isobe in flashbacks, while Numada becomes Tsukada, played by Toshiro Mifune, and Kin Sugai

plays his wife.

References

^ Pace, Eric (30 September 1996). "Shusaku Endo Is Dead at 73; Japanese Catholic Novelist". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2011.

[NY_tImes_obituary-1] Pace, Eric (30 September 1996). "Shusaku Endo Is Dead at 73; Japanese Catholic Novelist". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2011.