Oe, Kenzaburo

Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe was born in the village of Ose on the island of Shikoku where his family has lived for centuries. His father was killed in the Pacific during the war in 1944, the same year his grandmother died. Both had introduced Oe to art and story telling, and now his mother took over and bought him books by, for example, Mark Twain and Selma Lagerlöf.