Title: Sweeping Epic of Historic Japan
Product review: This novel only covers a time span of about 2 years if you exclude brief flashbacks, but it is otherwise epic in its scope. There's many classic themes combined in this one giant book (over 1000 pages in 2 volumes). It starts with the "Fish out of water" theme, which can be taken almost literally in the case of the main protagonist, an English sailor most at home on the ocean who is stranded in Japan not long after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the reign of Elizabeth I. While I can't vouch for the accuracy of the cultural descriptions, they are fascinating nonetheless. Also, if there's a book written in English that contains more ritual suicides, I'm not aware of it. It also touches on themes of forbidden love, religious intolerance, racism, loyalty. I found it to be a page turner and a quick read in spite of its length.
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