Book details
The Book of Loss
A Novel
Author: Julith Jedamus
The Book of Loss
$11.99
About This Book
Book Details
Set in the perfectly realized world of imperial tenth-century Japan, The Book of Loss is a gripping novel of sexual jealousy at court.
A renowned storyteller and lady-in-waiting to the Empress, the narrator is locked in a bitter rivalry with another woman for the love of a banished nobleman. Forced to observe the complex rules and social hierarchies of court life, she finds herself caught in a trap of her own making. Her machinations reach such a pitch that they threaten to undermine the rule of the Emperor himself. She records her plight, and her acidulous observations of courtly life, in her diary. Her voice is unforgettable—both foreign and utterly modern. Her sense of loss is unbearable, her love is all-consuming, and it will push her to the extremes of rivalry.
Offering intimate seductions and terrible betrayals, The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus takes the reader into the farthest reaches of desire, where passion rules and jealousy leads to unthinkable acts.
Imprint Publisher
St. Martin's Press
ISBN
9781466882867
In The News
“Jedamus's prose, like a prolonged Haiku, captures the Japanese obsession with subtle natural detail…A finely wrought depiction of turbulence.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Jedamus…skillfully evokes the elegant aesthetic and elaborate pageantry of the Heian period, particularly in the book's fascinating glossary.” —Publishers Weekly
“This is a story skillfully told...The language is superb and in sympathy to the era and country in which it is set, yet at the same time the emotions that are weaved back and forth are those that take place in every generation all over the world.” —Yorkshire Gazette Herald (UK)
“This is a careful tale of jealousy and revenge....Jedamus brings tenth century Japan to life with this diary centering on palace life....The diarist narrator conjures a piercing image of the era.” —Good Book Guide (UK)
“[F]or all the novel's exoticism, what gives it its edge is Jedamus's modern Psychological acuity.” —Observer (UK)