The dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetraology takes place in the late 1960s. Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru, as his heir, identifying him with the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty.

The dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetraology.

It is the 1960s and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru. Honda believes that the boy is the reincarnation of the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty. Honda raises and educates the boy, he makes him his heir, and watches him, waiting. But Toru is also watching Honda.

'A surpassingly chilling, subtle and original novel' New York Times

'Mishima's ritualistic suicide in 1970 will always overshadow his work, but his dark saga of 20th-century Japan is mesmerising' Guardian