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Grass for His Pillow: 4 (Tales of the Otori) - Softcover

 
9781594480034: Grass for His Pillow: 4 (Tales of the Otori)
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Grass for His Pillow is the second book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. Don't miss the related series, The Tale of Shikanoko.

Praised for its epic scope and descriptive detail, Across the Nightingale Floor, the first book in the Tales of the Otori series, was an international bestseller and critical success, named by the London Times as "the most compelling novel to have been published this year." With Grass for His Pillow, Book Two, we return to the medieval Japan of Lian Hearn's creation--a land of harsh beauty and deceptive appearances.

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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Review:
Grass for His Pillow is the second volume of Lian Hern's "Tales of the Otori", a medieval Japanese fantasy saga that opened with the critically acclaimed Across the Nightingale Floor (2002). Towards the end of book one, our hero Takeo and his lady love Kaede--with help from both friends and enemies--brought down an unpleasant warlord. But regime change doesn't mean an automatic happy ending. Although honour demands that Takeo accept the title of his adoptive father Otori Shigeru and continue revenge on his behalf, he's claimed by the secretive Tribe who are his blood kin. The Tribe runs an underground network of spies and assassins, and Takeo himself has inherited the special powers of an assassin: fantasy talents which build on the legend of perfect Japanese warriors. The power of stealthy movement extends to periods of literal invisibility; uncanny speed becomes the ability to translocate to a "second self" and be momentarily in two places at once. Our man is harshly trained by the Tribe in readiness for a mission calculated to strain his new loyalty.

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

Review:
"A welcome sequel...deliciously readable. In this new volume, we find ourselves once again transported to a medieval Japan of the imagination: a harsh land ruled by local warlords, an essentially static social order in which family ties bind tightly, a culture that mixes great refinement with unspeakable brutality...Reads like a fine translation from the Japanese."--The New York Times Book Review

"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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  • PublisherPenguin Adult Hc/Tr
  • Publication date2004
  • ISBN 10 1594480036
  • ISBN 13 9781594480034
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages344
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781509837816: Grass for His Pillow (Tales of the Otori, 2)

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781509837816
Publisher: Picador, 2017
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  • 9781573222518: Grass for His Pillow (Tales of the Otori, 2)

    Riverh..., 2003
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    Picador, 2016
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  • 9781405005821: Grass for His Pillow: Tales of the Otori Book 2

    Macmillan, 2003
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    Young ..., 2004
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