'ANDREW MILLER'S WRITING IS A SOURCE OF WONDER AND DELIGHT' Hilary Mantel

'ONE OF OUR MOST SKILFUL CHRONICLERS OF THE HUMAN HEART AND MIND' Sunday Times

'Cinematic'
Times Literary Supplement

'A real achievement'
Guardian

'Revelatory'
Sunday Times

The mesmerising tale of a young man forced to make life-changing decisions, from the critically acclaimed author Pure

Tokyo, 1940. While Japan's war against China escalates, young Yuji Takano clings to his cocooned life: his beloved evenings of French conversation at Monsieur Feneon's, visits to the bathhouse with friends, his books, his poetry.

But conscription looms and the mood turns against foreigners, just when Yuji gets entangled with Feneon's daughter. As the nation heads towards conflict with the Allies, Yuji must decide where his duty - and his heart - lies.


PRAISE FOR ANDREW MILLER

'Unique, visionary, a master at unmasking humanity'
Sarah Hall

'A writer of very rare and outstanding gifts'
Independent on Sunday

'A highly intelligent writer, both exciting and contemplative'
The Times

'A wonderful storyteller'
Spectator

Set in Japan in the run-up to Pearl Harbour, the mesmerising tale of a young man forced to make life-changing decisions, by one of the most highly acclaimed British writers

About the Author

Andrew Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, was published by Sceptre in 1997. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for the best foreign novel published in Italy. It has been followed by Casanova, Oxygen, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award in 2001, The Optimists, One Morning Like a Bird, Pure, which won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2011, The Crossing, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and The Slowworm's Song.


Andrew Miller's novels have been published in translation in twenty countries. Born in Bristol in 1960, he currently lives in Somerset.

Reviews
Miller's writing is cinematic . . . at all times the author is in command * Times Literary Supplement *
Revelatory * Sunday Times *
A quite beautifully written coming-of-age novel . . . a precisely, lovingly rendered evocation of imperial Japan * Daily Mail *
Miller's trademark is silken prose which gleams with acutely rendered detail * Independent *
Miller's writing is a joy . . . a memorable novel, one that stays true to the randomness of life, to unplanned acts and fateful outcomes . . . Deeply moving, written with loving attention to language, it felt like Pasternak back from the dead * Scotsman *
A real achievement * Guardian *
Not only does he combine delicious literary conceits with thought-provoking explorations into the human condition, he has the rare gift of tossing out perfect sentences that make you stop in your tracks * Metro *
There are moments of beauty, truth and irony * Daily Telegraph *
Andrew Miller is one of Britain's most graceful historical prose stylists . . . He deftly captures the nuances of his subject's emotional maturation against the brittle bellicosity of mid-war Tokyo -- Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday *
Miller's masterful coming-of-age story ranges from a subtle and spare poetry to an almost Proustian evocation of experiential time * The Age *
Miller's writing reaches across historical distance . . . Like one of the silk umbrellas that Miller's characters carry, the novel unfurls slowly to reveal the intricate, hand-painted patterns hidden at its centre * Globe and Mail *



Book Information
ISBN 9780340825150
Author Andrew Miller
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 26mm