Across the Nightingale Floor
Set in a mythical, feudal, Japanese land, a world both beautiful and cruel, the intense love story of two young people takes place against a background of warring clans, secret alliances, high honour and lightning swordplay.
Lian Hearn's stunningly powerful bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor, is an epic story for readers young and old.
In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Iida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surface sings at the tread of every human foot, and no assassin can cross it. But sixteen-year-old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida's warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe – preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self – that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart and death at his fingertips . . .
The first novel in the epic Tales of the Otori series, Across the Nightingale Floor is followed by Grass For His Pillow and Brilliance of the Moon.
'Quite simply the best story of magic, love, sex, revenge and suspense to have come this way since Philip Pullman.' – Independent on Sunday
Lian Hearn studied modern languages at Oxford University and worked as a film critic and arts editor in London before settling in Australia. A lifelong interest in Japan led to the study of the Japanese language, many trips to Japan, and culminated in the writing of the Tales of the Otori series.
Hearn is also the author of a two-volume prequel series to the Tales of the Otori, The Tale of Shikanoko, consisting of Emperor of the Eight Islands and Lord of the Darkwood.