In this prequel to the internationally bestselling Tales of the Otori, Lian Hearn returns readers to her dazzling world of warring clans, mighty lords, and savage battlefields, based on an fantasy feudal Japan.

Set three hundred years before her debut, Across the Nightingale Floor, and beginning with Emperor of the Eight Islands, the novels in the Tale of Shikanoko series tells the story of two rival clans, locked in battle for control of the Lotus Throne. While a weakened emperor nears the end of his reign, his sons vie for power. Meanwhile, exiled in the Darkwood, the powerful Shikanoko must choose between continuing to mourn for the death of his great love, and joining the power struggle for the Throne.

‘Expect graphic violence, fairy-tale magic, flights of comedy, and operatic melodrama but also genuine intimacy and tragedy.’ Kirkus Reviews