This novel kept being recommended for me because of the novels Silence and Crime and Punishment.

This is a beautifully written novel. The scene with Uiko and the deserter is, as he compares, right out of an old painting.

You can immediately tell Mizoguchi is a bit ‘off’. He’s sort of full of himself but detached, too. How much of that is because of his stutter or the other way around seems to be central here.