{"title":"Books by Lesley Downer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780552155328","title":"The Courtesan and the Samurai","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1868. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn Japan's exotic pleasure quarters,\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ...\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHana\u003c\/b\u003e is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure-quarters.There she is forced to become a courtesan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eYozo\u003c\/b\u003e, brave, loyal and a brilliant swordsman, is pledged to the embattled shogun. He sails to the frozen north to join his rebel comrades for a desperate last stand. Defeated, he makes his way south to the only place where a man is beyond the reach of the law - the Yoshiwara.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere in the Nightless City where three thousand courtesans mingle with geishas and jesters, the battered fugitive meets the beautiful courtesan. But each has a secret so terrible that once revealed it will threaten their very lives ...\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56290748662133,"sku":"9780552155328","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780552155328_c6abe414-6f3b-42d1-940c-cda8af38ede4.jpg?v=1786013857"},{"product_id":"9780552163453","title":"The Samurai's Daughter","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn the brave new Japan of the 1870s, Taka and Nobu meet as children and fall in love; but their relationship will test the limits of society.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnified after a bitter civil war, Japan is rapidly turning into a modern country with rickshaws, railways and schools for girls. Commoners can marry their children into any class, and the old hatred between north and south is over - or so it seems.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaka is from the powerful southern Satsuma clan which now dominates the country, and her father, General Kitaoka, is a leader of the new government. Nobu, however, is from the northern Aizu clan, massacred by the Satsuma in the civil war. Defeated and reduced to poverty, his family has sworn revenge on the Satsuma.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaka and Nobu's love is unacceptable to both their families and must be kept secret, but what they cannot foresee is how quickly the tables will turn.  Many southern samurai become disillusioned with the new regime, which has deprived them of their swords, status and honour. Taka's father abruptly leaves Tokyo and returns to the southern island of Kyushu, where trouble is brewing.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen he and his clansmen rise in rebellion, the government sends its newly-created army to put them down. Nobu and his brothers have joined this army, and his brothers now see their chance of revenge on the Satsuma. But Nobu will have to fight and maybe kill Taka's father and brother, while Taka now has to make a terrible choice - between her family and the man she loves ...\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56291137716597,"sku":"9780552163453","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780552163453_a90602a3-b19e-4300-96bd-7f5fe99fae6d.jpg?v=1786013950"},{"product_id":"9780552155205","title":"The Last Concubine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJapan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292016980341,"sku":"9780552155205","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780552155205_0b845806-0595-4c31-b32f-39fb7fc127b3.jpg?v=1786033132"},{"product_id":"9780552163491","title":"The Shogun's Queen","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe year is 1853, and a young Japanese girl’s world is about to be turned upside down.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen black ships carrying barbarians arrive on the shores of Japan, the Satsuma clan’s way of life is threatened. But it’s not just the samurai who must come together to fight: the beautiful, headstrong Okatsu is also given a new destiny by her feudal lord – to save the realm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArmed only with a new name, Princess Atsu, as she is now known, journeys to the women’s palace of Edo Castle, a place so secret it cannot be marked on any map. Behind the palace’s immaculate façade, amid rumours of murder and whispers of ghosts, Atsu must uncover the secret of the man whose fate, it seems, is irrevocably linked to hers – the shogun himself – if she is to rescue her people . . .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292020093301,"sku":"9780552163491","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780552163491_f8cb7a85-6120-4874-9d58-49dd85b86b4f.jpg?v=1786013951"},{"product_id":"9781913083632","title":"The Shortest History of Japan","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685712470389,"sku":"9781913083922","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56308686160245,"sku":"9781913083632","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913083922.jpg?v=1792598872"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-lesley-downer.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}