'' Somersault '' ( 宙返り '' Chūgaeri '' ) is a 1999 novel by Kenzaburō Ōe . It is about two former leaders of a religious cult as they try to establish a new movement , a possible nuclear catastrophe , and religious sects in everyday society . It received inspiration from the Aum Shinrikyo cult and their Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995 . The English translation , by Philip Gabriel , first appeared in 2003 . It was Ōe 's first novel since he won the 1994 literature Nobel Prize . It was published in the United States by Grove Press . The book was published in the United Kingdom by Atlantic Books
Tokyo subway sarin attack
Tokyo subway sarin attack
Somersault (novel)