Grass for His Pillow: Tales of the Otori Book 2 (Tales of the Otori, #2)

by Lian Hearn

In the ancient Oriental lands of the Otori, amidst a time of violent war, famine and treacherous alliances, the fate of the young lovers Otori Takeo and Shirakawa Kaede hangs in the balance . . .

Takeo, heir to the great Otori clan, has pledged his life to the secret Tribe. His supernatural skills of virtual invisibility and acute hearing make him their most deadly assassin. But he must deny the solemn oath of vengeance he made, his adopted birthright of wealth, land and power – and his love for Kaede. If he does not devote himself entirely to the brutal ways of the Tribe, they will kill him. Whichever path he choose, it will lead to hardship and sacrifice in the bitter winter of the high mountains, and test him to the limits of his being.

Kaede, heiress to vast lands, is now the valuable pawn of ruthless warlords. She must use her intelligence, beauty and cunning to assert her place in a world of all-powerful men – who must never suspect the dangerous secret she hides.

`The beauty, savagery and strangeness of Hearn’s gripping tale is heightened by her exquisite, crystalline prose. The second instalment in the Tales of the Otori is, astonishingly, even better than Across the Nightingale Floor’ Independent on Sunday

• ISBN10: 0330412736
• ISBN13: 9780330412735
• Publish Date: 2 April 2004 (first published 1 August 2003)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 January 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Picador
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

Although I gave this the same number of stars I gave [book: Across the Nightingale Floor], I enjoyed book 2 of this trilogy less than the first one. While things happened in book 1, this book was mostly about the characters being holed up for a winter while making plans about what to do in the spring. It moves the characters forward, as they decide to make plans for themselves rather than allowing themselves to be pawns for other people, but nothing goes into action. It's a shame that an entire book was spent setting the scene for another one, but it still possessed the charm that made me enjoy the first book.