The new novel by Japanese Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburô Ôe deals with a great life mystery that has troubled him for decades: the mysterious death of his father, who boarded a boat during a powerful storm in the summer of 1945 and drowned in the river under unclear circumstances. In his novel, Ôe sends his alter ego, the writer Kogito Choko, to his Japanese hometown. In a mysterious red leather suitcase lie documents that are meant to help him understand and finally write about his father's story. "The Wet Death" is a meditative novel about the relationship with the father, about his legacy, about mortality and memory - and about how storytelling can heal.