This author, also known by the pen name Lian Hearn, is celebrated for her intricate and affecting stories aimed at young readers. Her works frequently delve into themes of identity, family, and finding one's place in the world, all wrapped in compelling narratives. With a keen eye for detail and a profound understanding of human psychology, she crafts unforgettable characters and worlds that resonate long after the final page. Her writing is lauded for its sensitivity and its ability to connect with readers of all ages.
In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. But Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida's warriors, has magical skills that allow him to enter Samadu's lair.
A beautiful, haunting evocation of the medieval Japan of Lian Hearn's imagination, this thrilling follow-up to Grass for His Pillow and Across the Nightingale Floor delves deeper into the complex loyalties that bind its characters from birth. Filled with adventure and surprising twists of plot and fortune, this final volume travels beyond the Three Countries, to the outside influences that threaten to intrude upon this isolated realm.
The second book in the Tales of the Otori trilogy continues the epic story of Otori Takeo and Shirakawa Kaede, the young lovers whose fate is played out in an ancient Oriental world, where ritualised codes of high honour counter the cruelty of savage blood-feuds. Takeo has pledged his life to the Tribe, a secret clan of spies and assassins who claim his legendary supernatural skills for their own ruthless purposes, in doing so he must deny his birthright as an Otori lord - and his love for Kaede. If he does not serve them, the Tribe will kill him. Kaede, separated from Takeo, must use her intelligence, beauty and cunning to assert her place in a world of all-powerful men - who must never know that she is carrying Takeo's child. In growing from boy to man, Takeo must make a choice - and the dangerous path he undertakes is a journey of high adventure, treachery and passion that establishes this extraordinary trilogy as one of the most brilliant and enduring works of modern fiction. GRASS FOR HIS PILLOW, the sequel to ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, is one of the most eagerly-awaited novels of 2003. Lian Hearn has created a brilliantly imagined culture. Here is epic storytelling whose appeal crosses genres, genders and generations.