When I Whistle: A Novel

One of Endo's most unusual and powerful novels is set largely in a modern hospital, with themes and scenes that eerily seem to predate Never Let Me Go.When I Whistle," businessman Ozu recalls his youth in the days before World War II, after he happens to meet Aiko, the love interest of his old school friend. Meanwhile, his doctor son, Eiichi, is ruthlessly advancing his career through dishonesty and some highly immoral medical practices and Aiko is at the heart of this. The novel moves back and forth between the lives of the father and son. Eiichi is contemptuous of the outmoded values of his father's world and ruthless in pursuit of success at his hospital. The story reaches a terrible climax when Aiko, now a middle-aged cancer-sufferer, is admitted to the hospital and Eiichi is part of a conspiracy to test a new drug on her.