The sequel to "Across the nightingale floor" .... and the story of Takeo and Kaede.
I suppose most people will want to know if they end up together or not - I won't spoil it here, but I must say that the book, once you start reading it, is not easy to put down :-)
I loved it, and now can't wait to read the final volume !!!

From Amazon.com :
Lian Hearn's second novel in the Tales of the Otori, Grass For His Pillow continues to enrich and expand his mystical imaginings of feudal Japan. Picking up where Across the Nightingale Floor left off, Takeo fulfills his debt of honor and accepts his heritage as a member of the superhuman cabal of assassins known as "The Tribe," and is thus ingested into their plots. But his heart yearns for Kaede, his one true love, and secretly wishes to fulfill the final wishes of his adopted father, Otori Shigaru. Meanwhile, Kaede returns to her homeland to find her father's estate in ruin and her inheritance in jeopardy. The two each encounter vast political machinations and deadly consequences as they unconsciously move toward their overwhelming urges to reunite and defy (or perhaps embrace) fate.
Hearn's second book into the Tales of the Otori series is a more poignant tale than the first, painfully examining the lines between honor, duty, and love. With its calming and satisfying conclusion, the landscape of Hearn's mythical vision of Japan braces for a dazzling storm in the book to come (...)

Going for a mini bookring:


1) fflloorr
2) shroomi
3) BlossomU
4) Sossap
5) .. back to me

Sorry for the delay making this journal entry! This book is now on my huge TBR pile!

What a fantastic book, as good as "Across the nightingale floor". Can't wait for the third book on this series.
Thanks a lot Tho for this loan!

it's now with me! What a wonderful cover! I'll read it as soon as I can and pass it on to the next person. Thanks tho!

I liked it a lot and can't wait for the next book! I recommend re-reading the 1st on the serie if have the chance to before starting this one. At the beggining it was hard to remember everything that happen but once you're "in" the story, you won't stop reading!

Just arrived! And looking good - will try to read it as promptly as possible.

It was hard starting this book, the character list was scary, and I did not notice the little subtitle "characters which are alive at the start of the FIRST book" so I was extremely confused and thinking I remembered nothing right of the previous novel - "what wasn´t this guy dead with so and so?!?" It is very much a sequel book but easy enough to read and follow. I am afraid I did not as much as you guys, Kaede and Takeo were a bit too perfect as characters, and their decisions sometimes did not make much sense. I also think the book has this time-rhythm thing, some events are spoken as if they take a long time ( Kaede learning male writing) and it was just a month or a few weeks, the novel feels a bit like a filler, which is a bit of a problem with middle novels in trilogies. In all a series with interesting aspects - and it made me quite hungry for japanese food.

I will try to pass this book along to sossap soon. Thanks tho!

Devolvido à tho.

Recebi, li e, tal como o primeiro, adorreiiiiiiii, onde estáo terceiro, please???? Vai então ser devolvido à Tho com os meus imensos agradecimentos... e cá fico à espera do proximo :)

Read and returned with many tnks... waithing for the next of the saga... hummm

the book (the sequel that i so wanted to read) AND a whole lot of goodies are here, i can't say how much i'm touched by all this kindness and generosity. will try to read and send it back as soon as i can. thanks so much tho!

thanks so much tho, this was as good as the first one or atleast i enjoyed it as much. though i must admit that i liked the kaede parts more than takeo ones. i liked her growing and her strenght, though about takeo i thought that he sometimes acted like a brat. thanks again for the chance to read this, will be mailing it back tomorrow, let me know if you want something from here..

it's been mailed on wednesday, thanks so much for a lovely read!

It seems this copy got lost somewhere between Tehran and Lisbon ... but katayoun just sent me a new copy, bought during her vacation :-) Thanks so much, katayoun, I said you didn't have to but you just had to get it anyway, right ?
Back to my personal collection ...