Otori Takeo has pledged his life to the Tribe, a secret clan of spies and assassins who desire his legendary supernatural skills for their own ruthless purposes. But in doing so he must deny his birthright as an Otori lord – and his all-embracing love for Shirakawa Kaede. Now Kaede, separated from Takeo, is forced to use her intelligence, beauty and cunning to assert her place in a world of all-powerful men: men who must never know that she is carrying Takeo’s child. Meanwhile, as he grows from boy to man in a volatile world of honour codes and blood feuds, Takeo must make a treacherous choice – a choice that will colour every part of his future… “The beauty, savagery and strangeness of Hearn’s gripping tale is heightened by exquisite, crystalline prose.” Independent on Sunday