Once in a great while a new novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, with flawless storytelling and a unique understanding of another place and time. Takashi Matsuoka is just such a writer.
His magnificent new novel, set amid the violence and beauty of nineteenth-century Japan, takes us beyond the epic tradition of James Clavell's 'Shogun' and into a majestic realm of samurai and geishas, ninjas and Zen masters. Brilliantly imagined, gloriously written, 'Cloud Of Sparrows' is at once a sweeping historical adventure and a love story of almost unbearable poignancy. It is storytelling on the grand scale from a novelist of astounding depth and grace.
The year is 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has been forced to open its doors to the West. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun's castle in Edo, a small band of American missionaries arrives to spread the word of their God. They have yet to realise that their destiny in Japan has already been foreseen. For a young nobleman has dreamt that his life will be saved by an outsider in the New Year . . . and it is said that Lord Genji has the gift of prophecy.
As this unlikely band embarks on a journey through a landscape bristling with danger, East and West, flesh and spirit, past and future collide in a way no one - least of all Genji - could have imagined. All in the shadow of a castle known as Cloud of Sparrows . . .
