The Character of Rain

The Character of Rain is a short novel by the Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, originally written in French and published in 2000. It has a certain autobiographical character and describes the world as discovered by a three-year-old girl born in Japan to a Belgian family.

The narrator spends her first two and a half years in a nearly vegetative state, until she is jolted out of it and gains a peculiar but complete awareness of her surroundings. Her parents are surprised to find that their "plant" has become a child who can move, but their enthusiasm fades as she becomes very active and prone to tantrums. Her first real pleasure comes from eating white chocolate, and she is fascinated by water in its many forms, including rain, a symbol of her amphibious life. She also discovers the Japanese language, time, a pond with carp, and death, a discovery that drives her to attempt suicide before she is rescued from drowning in the pond.