Japan and World-Fiction & History
Explore the best fiction and history books about Japan and the world. Discover captivating stories and historical accounts that bring Japan's rich culture and global connections to life.
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Shipwrecks
by Akira Yoshimura
"A thrilling tale of murder and retribution set on the wild seacoast of medieval Japan"--Cover.
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The Forty-seven Ronin Story
by John Allyn
Japan underwent tumultuous changes in the eighteenth century. The merchant class was rising in power, and the privileges of the professional warriors, or "samurai", were disappearing. The 47 Ronin Story is the classic story of Lord Asano of Ako and one of the bloodiest vendettas in Japan's feudal history. In 1701 in Edo, Japan, Lord Asano of Ako lashed out at a corrupt court official and set in motion a chain of events that shocked the country and brought the Shogun himself to a legal and moral impasse. When it was over, there emerged the most unlikely set of heroes-the forty-seven ronin, or "ex-samurai", of Ako.
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Musashi
by 吉川英治
Musashi Miyamoto fights in 1600 for the losing side of the battle at Sekigahara when the Tokugawa Shogunate begins its reign.
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Nine Parts of Desire
by Geraldine Brooks
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - Pulitzer Prize winning author presents the stories of a wide range of Muslim women in the Middle East. As an Australian American and an experienced foreign correspondent, Brooks' thoughtful analysis attempts to understand the precarious status of women in the wake of Islamic fundamentalism. "Frank, enraging, and captivating." - The New York Times Nine Parts of Desire is the story of Brooks' intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. Defying our stereotypes about the Muslim world, Brooks' acute analysis of the world's fastest growing religion deftly illustrates how Islam's holiest texts have been misused to justify repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once liberating faith. As a prizewinning foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Geraldine Brooks spent six years covering the Middle East through wars, insurrections, and the volcanic upheaval of resurgent fundamentalism. Yet for her, headline events were only the backdrop to a less obvious but more enduring drama: the daily life of Muslim women.
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Gates of Fire
by Steven Pressfield
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life.”—Pat Conroy At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history—one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . .
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Across the Nightingale Floor
by Lian Hearn
In a novel set in ancient Japan, a young boy named Takeo becomes a pawn in the ceaseless wars between rival warlord clans in a culture ruled by codes of honor and formal rituals.
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The Rape of Nanking
by Iris Chang
Attempts to analyze the degree to which the Japanese imperial government and its militaristic culture fostered in the Japanese soldier a total disregard for human life.
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Hiroshima Diary
by Michihiko Hachiya
Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945
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The Source
by James Albert Michener
In this compelling novel, Michener sweeps readers back through time to the very beginnings of the Jewish faith, thousands of years ago, to experience the entire colorful history of the JewsQfrom the lives of the early Hebrews to the impact of Christianity, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition to present-day Israel and the Middle-East conflict. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
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Shinju
by Laura Joh Rowland
When beautiful, wealthy Yukiko and low-born artist Noriyoshi are found drowned together in a shinju, or ritual double suicide, everyone believes the culprit was forbidden love. Everyone but newly appointed yoriki Sano Ichiro. Despite the official verdict and warnings from his superiors, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People suspects the deaths weren't just a tragedy -- they were murder. Risking his family's good name and his own life, Sano will search for a killer across every level of society -- determined to find answers to a mystery no one wants solved. No one but Sano... As subtle and beautiful as the culture it evokes, Shinju vividly re-creates a world of ornate tearooms and guady pleasure-palaces, cloistered mountaintop convents and dealthy prisons. Part love story, part myster, Shinju is a tour that will dazzle and entertain all who enter its world.
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Johnny Got His Gun
by Dalton Trumbo
A powerful narrative which exposes the brutalities and useless suffering caused by war.
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Kill the Shogun
by Dale Furutani
Matsuyama Kaze, a samurai on a quest to rescue his murdered lord's kidnapped daughter, is caught in a plot to kill the shogun.
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Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.