"The Japanese believe that until the age of three, children, whether Japanese or not, are gods, each one an okosama, or "lord child. " On their third birthday they fall from grace and join the rest of the human race. In Amelie Nothomb's new novel, The Character of Rain, we learn that divinity is a difficult thing from which to recover, particularly if, like the child in this story, you have spent the first two and a half years of life in a nearly vegetative state. "--BOOK JACKET.