Grass for His Pillow - (Tales of the Otori) by Lian Hearn (Paperback)

About the Book

The spellbinding second installment of the internationally bestselling Tales of the Otori trilogy transports readers back to a mythical, medieval Japan in a story of clashing powers, divided loyalties, and passionate love.

Book Synopsis

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...

Review Quotes

"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)

About 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. 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. Don't miss the related series, The Tale of Shikanoko.