Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids

At the very end of World War II, the Japanese government evacuates a group of difficult teenagers to a remote mountain village. There, the boys are constantly mocked by the villagers and made to do the heaviest physical labor. When an epidemic breaks out in the area, local residents flee to neighboring settlements, abandoning the teenagers to their fate. Left alone, they try to survive and build their own society—but will their hopes hold up when they collide with harsh and brutal reality?

The novel "Pluck Out the Growth, Destroy the Younglings," which Ōe himself called his favorite work, is published in Russian for the first time—translated by Ekaterina Ryabova.