Thanks to Brittany Graham of PR by the Book, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Sea of Japan’ by Keita Nagano.
Description Sea of Japan by Keita Nagano
After fleeing a disastrous teaching job (and a bad gambling habit) in Boston, Lindsey starts teaching English in Hime, a small fishing town in Japan. One morning, while trying to snap the perfect ocean sunrise photo for her mother, she slips off a rock at the edge of Toyama Bay, hits her head, and plunges into the sea—and in doing so, sets off an unexpected chain of events.
When Lindsey comes to in the hospital, she learns that she owes her life to a young man named Ichiro—a local fisherman who also happens to be the older brother of one of her students. She begins to spend time with her lifesaver, and in the ensuing months, she becomes increasingly enmeshed in her new life: when she is not busy teaching, she splits her time between an apprenticeship with the local master sushi chef and going out fishing with Ichiro. As she and Ichiro grow closer, however, she also learns that not all is well in Hime, and she is drawn into a war to stop the town next door from overfishing their shared bay. Soon, she, Ichiro, and her pastrami-obsessed best friend, Judy—the New Yorker, who talked Lindsey into coming to Japan in the first place—are spending all their free time working together to rescue the town. But when their efforts backfire, Hime gets closer to falling apart—putting Lindsey’s friends, her budding relationship with Ichiro, and her career in jeopardy. To save Hime, Lindsey realizes, she’ll have to become a true American fisherwoman and fight for her new home with everything she has.
About Keita Nagano
Keita Nagano is an award-winning Japanese author who has lived almost equally in Nevada and Tokyo—more than twenty years in each place—and reflects the difference of the two cultures in his novels. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Keio University in Japan, as well as an MBA in global business and Ph.D. in management from Walden University in Minnesota.
The pursuit of the authentic American experience is his hobby: he has been to all fifty states, all thirty major league ballparks, and the top sixty big cities in America. He has published seventeen business nonfiction and eight fiction books in Japan. In 2013, he received a Nikkei (Japanese Wall Street Journal) Award for Contemporary Novel for his missing-child thriller, Kamikakushi. He is also an official weekly columnist for Forbes Japan. Nagano lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife and Welsh corgi, and their teenage daughter is currently studying in Tennessee.
Autumn, 1565: When an actor’s daughter is murdered on the banks of Kyoto’s Kamo River, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo are the victim’s only hope for justice.
As political tensions rise in the wake of the shogun’s recent death, and rival warlords threaten war, the Kyoto police forbid an investigation of the killing, to keep the peace–but Hiro has a personal connection to the girl, and must avenge her. The secret investigation leads Hiro and Father Mateo deep into the exclusive world of Kyoto’s theater guilds, where they quickly learn that nothing, and no one, is as it seems. With only a mysterious golden coin to guide them, the investigators uncover a forbidden love affair, a missing mask, and a dangerous link to corruption within the Kyoto police department that leaves Hiro and Father Mateo running for their lives.
“In The Ninja’s Daughter, Susan Spann’s poetic voice brilliantly captures the societal disparities, political intrigues, and martial conflicts of sixteenth-century Japan through the persevering efforts of ninja detective Hiro Hattori to solve a murder authorities consider of no consequence.” -JEFFREY SIGER, International Bestselling Author
Excerpt of Ninja’s Daughter: Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann
Kyoto, September 1565
Last year, when I became betrothed, my mother gave me this little book in which to write my thoughts. She said I might have things to say that women should not say aloud, and that I could write them here, where no one else would see or judge me for them.
Until tonight, I have not used this book because I never had the kind of thoughts Mother described. As the eldest child of a well-respected actor in Kyoto’s Yutoku-za, I have a life that many girls would envy. Women cannot act on the stage, but I don’t care. My parents have arranged for me to marry the most handsome actor in Kyoto. His name is Yuji, and someday he will play the leading parts in every play performed by the Yutoku-za. Every woman who sees him, wants him, but I am the lucky one that he will marry.
In truth, my mother should have given this diary to my younger sister, Emi. She had many thoughts she should not speak aloud—and said them, even though my parents often told her not to. First, she refused to let them find her a husband. Then, she said she wanted to become an entertainer, singing and dancing in a teahouse for the amusement of samurai warriors!
I have to admit, I don’t really understand why everyone wanted to stop her from becoming an entertainer. When I marry Yuji, I’ll have everything I ever wanted. Why shouldn’t Emi have the chance to see her dream come true?
But the answer to that question doesn’t matter any more. You see, this morning the Kyoto police discovered my lovely sister lying dead on the banks of the Kamo River.
Given the marks around her neck, it looked like someone murdered her, but the police refused to investigate because actors’ families have no status. They said my sister’s death was “of no consequence,” and called her body “a pile of filth on the riverbank.”
When my parents and I arrived at the scene, a pair of strangers stood by Emi’s body, arguing with the police. They wanted to find the person who killed my sister, and told my father they will do it even though the assistant magistrate has threatened to arrest them if they try. One of the men is a foreigner—a priest who follows a foreign god. I wanted to stare at his giant nose and strangely-colored skin, but I was afraid of his companion, a samurai translator called Hattori Hiro.
I do not know if these men will be able to find the person who murdered Emi. Kyoto’s theater troupes have rules that govern everyone and everything that happens in our clans. Our men perform in public, but we do not welcome strangers who intrude upon our private lives. Emi broke those rules, and it cost her life.
Will these strangers be able to find her killer before they suffer a similar fate?
I do not know, but the next few days will tell the tale.
To learn more about Chou, and Emi, and find out how the story ends, pick up The Ninja’s Daughter…on sale now!
About Susan Spann
Susan Spann is the author of three previous novels in the Shinobi Mystery series: Claws of the Cat, Blade of the Samurai, and Flask of the Drunken Master. She has a degree in Asian Studies and a lifelong love of Japanese history and culture. . When not writing, she works as a transactional attorney focusing on publishing and business law, and raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium.
Giveaway of Ninja’s Daughter: Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann
This giveaway is for the winner’s choice of print or ebook and is open to Canada and the U.S. only. This giveaway ends on September 9, 2016 midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.
Thanks to Catherine Sim of Simon and Schuster Canada, I am giving away one advanced reader print copy of ‘The Japanese Lover’ by Isabel Allende.
Description of ‘The Japanese Lover’ by Isabel Allende:
From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War.
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family, like thousands of other Japanese Americans are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.
Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco’s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.
Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives. Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits, The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.
About Isabel Allende:
Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of a number of bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, Paula, and My Invented Country. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and have sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. She lives in California. Her website is IsabelAllende.com.
Giveaway of ‘The Japanese Lover’ by Isabel Allende:
This giveaway is open to Canada only and ends on August 26, 2015. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
Sea of Japan by Keita Nagano
