All five books in the Tales of the Otori series- Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon, The Harsh Cry of the Heron, and Heaven's Net is Wide-are available now from Riverhead Books. The most extraordinary novel.The passion and rapture of this story is so compelling that it's almost worth delaying your holiday for. The Independent on Sunday (UK)Ĭomplex.fast-paced, arousing adventure reminiscent of Arthurian legend that's told with all the urgency of a modern-day thriller. Book MagazineĪcross the Nightingale Floor is as exciting a debut as any in recent yearspart Shogun, part Lord of the Flies and entirely enchanting. Milwaukee Journal SentinelĪbout the Author Lian Hearn is the pseudonym for the writer Gillian Rubinstein, currently living in Australia, who has a lifelong interest in Japan, has lived there, and speaks Japanese. The most compelling novel to have been published this year. The Times (London) Satisfyingly rich in incident yet admirably spare in the telling.Hearn has created a world I anticipate returning to with pleasure. The New York Times Book Review And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor-and to his own unimaginable destiny. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR SERIESBut unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. An international bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Don't miss the related series, The Tale of Shikanoko. (For readers interested in hearing what a real-life nightingale floor sounds like, listen in at the Book Set in an engaging, alternate Japan, this first book in a new epic trilogy has already become a bestselling sensation in England and Australia, earning comparisons to "Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It begins with legend of a nightingale floor in a black-walled fortress-a floor that sings in alarm at the step of an assassin.īook Synopsis An international bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. It is in crossing this floor in silence that Taeko has been trained… but at what cost? The beautiful and the tragic have always been intertwined in Japanese culture, and this tale serves as a lovely example. However, a nightingale floor serves as Lord Iida’s protection, for it sings if any intruder steps upon it. In a land where clan warfare is a way of life, the death of the evil Lord Iida–the killer of Taeko’s people and the future husband of Taeko’s secret love–is the only hope for the Otori. Takeo is instructed by his new mentor in the arts of magical deception and swordfighting, only to discover his true heritage when he excels beyond the Otori’s wildest hopes. Independent on Sunday Across the Nightingale Floor was described to me by the young man in Borders bookshop as a 'Japanese Harry Potter, only better'. After a raid by enemy warriors–his family killed, his village in flames–he finds himself rescued by Shigeru, a Lord of the Otori clan who adopts him and renames him Takeo, after Shigeru’s dead brother. Across the Nightingale Floor remains quite simply the best story of magic, love, sex, revenge and suspense to have come this way since Philip Pullman. In an imaginary country strongly reminiscent of feudal Japan, young Tomasu was raised as a member of a peaceful mountain tribe called the Hidden. This is an entertaining historical fantasy that does nearly everything right.
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