Japan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo.

Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.

But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'.

Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....

Epic history and romance combine in a passionate, exotic novel featuring the mysterious mistress of the last shogun emperor.

About the Author

Lesley Downer's mother was Chinese and her father a professor of Chinese, so she grew up in a house full of books on Asia. But it was Japan, not China, that proved the more alluring, and she lived there for some fifteen years.

She has written many books about the country and its culture, including Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World, and Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Seduced the West, and has presented television programmes on Japan for Channel 4, the BBC and NHK.

She lives in London with her husband, the author Arthur I. Miller, and still makes sure she goes to Japan every year.

Awards
Short-listed for Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2009.



Book Information
ISBN 9780552155205
Author Lesley Downer
Format Paperback
Page Count 624
Imprint Corgi Books
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 419g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 127mm * 37mm