Part I is narrated by the protagonist, Kotoba, a 33 year old male translator of twenty-two languages living in Tokyo while travelling all over the world.

The novel is mainly about the pursuit of a language called Baki+T, which is believed to be the language of trees, as well as a spiritual calling or a means of spiritual development.

The chapters in Part I juxtapose Kotoba’s current life after receiving a phone call from Baki+T University and his experiences since his childhood in various countries where he mastered his twenty-two languages.

In Part II, the narration changes to the perspective of Jed, a librarian chosen as a facilitator of the class. Part II describes how the six plus students are internally transformed while considering who is the Photosynthesizer. In the end, each student has their own Photosynthesizer. At the same time, Kotoba, as a manipulator of language, turns out to be the Photosynthesizer that the trees have designated. Kotoba undergoes a spiritual quest in the deep mountains and experiences orgasm for the first time in his life.

Epilogue. First person narration by Kotoba. Kotoba now has a twin girl. Through his conversation with an old friend, readers come to know that Kotoba is now a poet, giving readings all over the world.

Critical Essay: “Language and Authenticity” In the relationship between human beings and language, two approaches are possible; One is looking at language as something which is naturally or unconsciously spoken. The other is looking at language as something that itself speaks or “lets loose” in speaking especially through poetry or the ecstatic or inspired speech of religious ritual. In this essay, I will first discuss language and authenticity primarily through a consideration of Heidegger’s writings on poetic language and authenticity of language. Secondly, I will expand the authenticity discussion to religion as discussed in contemporary theory and postmodern theology by looking at Faith by Derrida and Vattimo. In the last chapter, I will look at language from the perspective of translation mainly discussing the seminal essay, The Task of the Translator by Walter Benjamin.