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The Commoner

A Novel

By John Burnham Schwartz

(6)

| Hardcover | 9780385515719

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Book Description

It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by Continue

It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman—a rising star in the foreign ministry—to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic.

Told in the voice of Haruko, meticulously researched and superbly imagined, The Commoner is the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarified and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other. With the unerring skill of a master storyteller, John Burnham Schwartz has written his finest novel yet.

Critics

  • Prisoner of the Palace

    Royal families and imperial dynasties are by nature closed and hidden. Unless they can maintain their mystique in this democratic age, they have little reason to exist. Queen Elizabeth II does not give interviews and neither do the emperor and empres ... (read full critics)

    nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

  • The Commoner By John Burnham Schwartz

    Schwartz imagines the interior lives of Japan's royal familyFor author John Burnham Schwartz, it was the bittersweet sense of what might have been, that first sparked his imagination and spurred him to write his new novel, The Commoner. Set to be rel ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

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Book Details

  • Rating:
    (6)
    • 5 stars
    • 4 stars
    • 3 stars
    • 2 stars
    • 1 star
  • English Books
  • Hardcover 368 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 0385515715
  • ISBN-13: 9780385515719
  • Publisher: Nan A. Talese
  • Pub date: Jan 22, 2008
  • Also available as: Others
  • In other languages: other languages Libri Italiani
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9780385515719 Hardcover $24.95 -- The Book Depository
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