In this national bestseller from the author of Reservation Road, a young woman, Haruko, becomes the first nonaristocratic woman to penetrate the Japanese monarchy.
When she marries the Crown Prince of Japan in 1959, Haruko is met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress, and controlled at every turn as she tries to navigate this mysterious, hermetic world, suffering a nervous breakdown after finally giving birth to a son. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman to accept the marriage proposal of her son, with tragic consequences. Based on extensive research, The Commoner is a stunning novel about a brutally rarified and controlled existence, and the complex relationship between two isolated women who are truly understood only by each other.
- ISBN10 1602852219
- ISBN13 9781602852211
- Publish Date 1 July 2008 (first published 22 January 2008)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Center Point Large Print
- Edition Large type / large print edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 326
- Language English