Like all good Japanese fiction, there are elements of Ōe Kenzaburō's own life weaved into THE SILENT CRY (万延元年のフットボール), from a couple dealing with a disabled child, to a childhood in Shikoku. The main narrative focuses on two brothers trying to grapple with their own relationship, as well as a family history that threatens to reveal itself just as their own lives are also beginning to unravel.