by Lesley Downer (Author)
Japan, 1868: the last shogun has been defeated, the age of the emperors is about to begin - and in Japan's frozen north a diehard band of loyalists plans a desperate last stand. Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and very vulnerable.When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees for her life across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure quarter. There she is sold into a brothel and forced to train as a courtesan. Yozo, a traveller, adventurer and brilliant swordsman, returns to Japan after six years in the Victorian West to discover that the world he left behind him has been destroyed. Travelling north to join his rebel comrades, he is captured during their final battle. Escaping, he makes his way south to the only place where a man is beyond the reach of the law - the Yoshiwara. There in the Nightless City where three thousand courtesans mingle with geishas and jesters, the battered fugitive meets the beautiful courtesan.But each has a secret so terrible that once revealed it will threaten not only their union - but their very lives ...
Format: Perfect Paperback
Pages: 338
Publisher: Bantam (UK)
Published: Apr 2010
ISBN 10: 0593057945
ISBN 13: 9780593057940
Book Overview: In the Floating World of the Yoshiwara sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ... A new romantic and exotic novel by the bestselling author of The Last Concubine.