I just finished Autumn Bridge by Takashi Matsuoka. It's a collection of beautiful Japanese historic type love stories, the next book after Cloud of Sparrows. This exquisite tale follows the blood line of a wealthy Japanese family of Lords and Nobles through six centuries of marriage, love, war and political executions. Before reaching Lord Genji and a young American rose Emily Gibson who arrives in Japan 1867 as a christian missionary. Its a truly superb tale, the setting changes seamlessly though the ages to show the passing of time. All the characters from the elegant noblewomen to the Haughty princes are lovingly written, the story lines are well sewn together, to give the full effect as each characters flaws and values spread before you. The bad guys are never wholly evil, and the good guys are never knights in shiny armor. It can get a little choppy between the past and present movements of the book and some behaviors take a while to relate. But all in all i would (an have) read this again and recommend it to anyone who likes well written complex love stories with a bit of magic and ninja type sword fighting or has an itch for anything historic and anthropological.
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