I've just received this from fuji, along with a beautiful postcard of a painting by Uemura Shoen, who also did the one shown here.

The cover of my book is different, being a deep red in tone, with the sword curving in the opposite direction, and instead of the crane and seal there is an image of a young man in the background.

I'm rather glad that I didn't have the chance to read this until I returned from Japan, as I think the trip gave me deeper appreciation for the book.

[This is the Nightingale Floor at Ninomaru Castle in Kyoto; I walked on it last week. Unlike the hero of this book, I did not do so silently!]

Tomasu's family were members of a persecuted religion, the hidden. When he is fifteen, his village is attacked and wiped out, but he is saved by Lord Otari Shigeru, who adopts him, renaming him Takeo.. At the same time, certain unusual abilities, heretofore latent in him, appear, and it is discovered that his true birth was to the Tribe, a people with preternatural hearing, the ability to split themselves in two, to become invisible. These skills have stood them in good stead as assassins. It is not the future Takeo envisions for himself, especially after he lays eyes on the beautiful Lady Shirakawa Kaede.


SPOILER:
He meets her as he is accompanying Shigeru, who is to marry her to cement an alliance between his clan, the Otori, and the Tohan clan, led by Iida Sadamu, the man who attacked Takeo's village and against whom he swore vengeance. Shigeru, for his part, is in love with Lady Murayama, who returns his love. He has agreed to marry Kaede in exchange for being allowed to adopt Takeo, and with the intent of using the marriage as a pretext for getting into Lord Iida's stronghold.

Another lord, Arai, is massing an army to attack Iida's castle, and Takeo will use his skill to cross the nightingale floor in silence, and kill Iida. But things go badly awry when Takeo is kidnapped by members of the Tribe. Lady Murayama and her daughter are killed trying to escape the castle, Shigeru is captured and tortured and left to die. Takeo manages to retrieve him, and help him to an honorable death, and Kaede kills Iida when he tries to rape her. She and Takeo consummate their love, and the citadel falls to Arai, but Takeo must leave Kaede and join the Tribe, in fulfillment of a promise.

While set in an imaginary country, and with elements of fantasy, this book is nevertheless a beautifully written evocation of ancient Japan, its clan wars, its social structure, its arts, its religion. It is the first of a trilogy, Tales of the Otori, and I will definitely be looking out for the next volume.


UPDATE: I've now read the next volume, Grass for His Pillow. Since I borrowed it from my public library, I obviously haven't registered it, but I thought I'd put a brief review of it here:

The second in Hearn's Tales of the Otori trilogy. Not quite as good as the first (Across the Nightingale Floor), but that was so good that it doesn't matter.

Takeo, in fulfillment of his promise, has gone to join the Tribe, where he will learn to be an assassin. But treachery, coupled with a deep distaste for this life, lead him to leave the Tribe, a move he knows will mark him for death. Kaede, meanwhile, must find a way to take up her inheritance and lead the Maruyama, while maintaining her independence and avoiding an arranged marriage. Both long for a day when they may be together again.

The struggles they undergo to achieve their goals matures them, and this unfolds gradually and naturally. Hearn again draws on the world of medieval Japan for her inspiration.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I'm reviewing Brilliance of the Moon, the final book of this trilogy, here, also because I read a library copy. Some spoilers, so be warned!

Three bloods are mixed in you. You were born into the Hidden, but your life has been brought into the open and is no longer your own. Earth will deliver what heaven desires.

Your lands will stretch from sea to sea, but peace comes at the price of bloodshed. Five battles will buy you peace, four to win and one to lose. Many must die, but you yourself are safe from death, except at the hands of your own son.

These are the words a prophetess spoke to Takeo, and this volume sees the fulfillment of much of them.

At the end of Grass for his Pillow, Takeo and Kaede had re-united and wed, and are preparing to claim Maruyama in her name. But that goal is a difficult one, as the Tribe continues its efforts to kill Takeo, whom they view as a traitor, the Otori lords (Takeo's uncles) maintain their hold on his lands, and Lord Fujiwara, to whom Kaede had been betrothed, and his ally, Arai Daiichi, seek to avenge the insult.

Again, they are separated, and Kaede is forcibly wed to Fujiwara, though he has no interest in her as a wife. Takeo fights armies and nature, and after losing a battle, surrenders to Arai. Though ostensibly taking him into alliance, Arai again betrays him.

In this book, unlike the others, nature plays an important role, as typhoons and earthquakes influence events. At one point, at least, an earthquake is a little bit too much of a deus ex machina, as though Hearn couldn't figure out another way to get her characters out of the predicament they were in! However, that's a quibble. Hearn has once again written a gripping story, filled with action and thought, spirituality and worldliness, life and death.

Thanks to Mojosmom for bringing this beautiful book with her to the Bookcrossing Convention for me.
I have sent and received many books thru Bookcrossing but this is the first time I have had on hand delivered to me and gotten a recommendation along with the book!!
Thanks again, I look forward to reading this beauty.

I thought this was a wonderful book. It encompassed many of my favorite themes, coming of age, isight into another culture, and another time, honor, etc.
I will be trying my library for the next volumes. Somehow they neglected to carry this first book of the series.

I am also sending this to my sister. I pass on most of my favorite reads to her...

My sister loved this book. She said it made her cry and that she would be looking for the sequels.
Thanks again to Mojosmom for starting this book on its travels.
It will get back out into the world after I get it back from my sister, probably after Thanksgiving.

Passed on to another sf-books.com member as a birthday club gift book. Still traveling the world!