The Changeling

The Changeling (取り替え子 (チェンジリング) Torikae ko (Chenjiringu)) is a 2000 novel by Kenzaburō Ōe. It is the first book of a trilogy. It was translated into English by Deborah Boliver Boehm , and published in the United States by Grove Press. Its English publication appeared in 2010.[2] Boehm uses American English heavily in her translation. The United Kingdom version is published by Atlantic Books.
In the novel, a filmmaker named Goro Hanawa commits suicide. Goro had appeared happy before his suicide. His best friend, a novelist named Kogito Choko, discovers the suicide via an audiotape recorded by Goro; he had sent forty tapes to Kogito. Chikashi Choko, Goro's sister and Kogito's wife, also learns that Goro died. To learn why Goro had killed himself, Kogito listens to the tapes. Scott Esposito of the Los Angeles Times said that "What he finds is a rambling series of discourses on everything from the friendship they've shared since they were teens in the 1950s to Goro's ideas about art and life, their shared admiration for Rimbaud and a few secrets from the past."
Kogito Choko (長江 古義人 Chōkō Kogito) – The main character. He has a son who is a composer and is disabled.[1]
The name "Kogito" is a tribute to Descartes (cogito ergo sum). Kogito is modeled off of Kenzaburō Ōe.[1] Ōe has a disabled son, Hikari Ōe.
Goro Hanawa (塙 吾良 Hanawa Gorō) – A legendary filmmaker who commits suicide. He is Kogito's brother in law and best friend
Goro is based on Juzo Itami, who was Ōe's brother in law.[1]
Chikashi Choko (長江 千樫 Chōkō Chikashi) – Goro's sister and Kogito's wife
Daio : one-armed leader of a band of young, right-wing disciples whom he inherited from Kogito's late father in 1945
Peter: a, homosexual U.S. Army officer serving in Japan in 1952
Mitsu Azuma-Böme:, a mysterious older Japanese woman who seeks Kogito out in Berlin
Akari Choko (長江 アカリ Chōkō Akari):, Kogito's son and slightly mentally handicapped composer
Ura Shima: Goro's teenage lover in Berlin one year before his suicide

Literatura Estrangeira