Across the Nightingale Floor (2005, Heinemann Educational Publishers)
Published Feb. 22, 2005 by Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Already a sensation around the world, this first book of the Otori Trilogy is a brilliantly imagined, wholly seductive tale of war, passion, and intrigue, evoking the spirit of medieval Japan. It is the story of a boy who is suddenly plucked from his life in a remote and peaceful village to find himself a pawn in a political scheme filled with treacherous warlords, rivalry and the intensity of first love.
A perfectly crystallized setting that manages to convey intense feelings of grief and yearning without becoming mired or miserable. CN misogyny and sexual assault, though they are treated with such a feminist hand that the result is more energizing than defeating.
