In a complex social hierarchy, amid dissembling clans and fractured allegiances, there is no place for passionate young love. The orphan Takeo has been condemned to work as an assassin--an enforced occupation that his father sacrificed his own life to escape. Meanwhile, Takeo's beloved Shirakawa Kaede, heir to the Murayama and alone in the world, must find a way to unify the domain she has inherited, as she fights off the advances of would-be suitors and hopes against fading hope that Takeo will return to her...
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Meanwhile Kaede, pregnant by Takeo, returns to her dilapidated family estate and--without any magical talents to help her--determinedly begins to consolidate power and fight with all her intelligence, personality and beauty against the universal view that women are of no account except as wives. Her inheritance, she's told, will make her future husband a key player in the feudal power-struggle. So she thinks: "why should I not become a key player myself?"
The sense of place is strong and effective, as is the irony that in these times of unrest and upheaval the warrior class also cultivates appreciation of exquisite things. Elaborate preparation of tea, for example, or watching snowfall by lantern-light, or collecting ceramics too fine to be kept on display for profane eyes. This, Kaede fears, is how that lordly collector would like to keep her: beautifully wrapped and hidden away.
Inevitably Takeo breaks with the Tribe again and learns more about his other heritage as an Otori Lord. He also learns that there's a prophecy that he himself can buy peace for the troubled land after five battles: "four to win and one to lose". Compelling and evocative, Grass for His Pillow ends on a high note of suspense. The trilogy is to conclude with Brilliance of the Moon. --David Langford
"This is the second installment in Hearn's trilogy and astonishingly it's even better than volume one...the emotional power of the story is vastly magnified. Time and destiny are almost tangible in the novel...The beauty, savagery and strangeness of Hearn's gripping tale is heightened by her exquisite, crystalline prose."--The Independent (UK)
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