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A bold and vivid historical epic of feudal Japan, based on the real-life exploits of the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto.
Japan in the late 16th century was a land in turmoil. Lords of the great clans schemed against each other, served by aristocratic samurai bound to them by a rigid code of honor. Bennosuke is a high-born but lonely teenager living in his ancestral village. His mother died when he was a young boy, and his powerful warrior father Munisai has abandoned him for a life of service to his Lord, Shinmei.
Bennosuke has been raised by his uncle Dorinbo, a Buddhist monk who urges the boy to forgo the violence of the samurai and embrace the contemplative life. But Bennosuke worships his absent father, and when Munisai returns, gravely injured, Bennosuke is forced to confront truths about his family's history and his own place in it. These revelations soon guide him down the samurai's path - awash with blood, bravery, and vengeance.
His journey will culminate in the epochal battle of Sekigahara - in which Bennosuke will first proclaim his name as Mushashi Miyamoto. This rich and absorbing epic explores the complexities of one young man's quest while capturing a crucial turning point in Japanese history with visceral mastery, sharp psychological insight and tremendous narrative momentum.
"Kirk, who lives in Japan, positively seethes with energy when depicting bloody violence - from great battlefields to intimate ritual suicide - showing feudal Japan as a complex culture in which cunning and poetry are indispensable, and death and vengeance unavoidable." - Publishers Weekly
"While not having the epic scope of Shogun, Kirk's novel is sure to be compared to Clavell's work in its superb depiction of samurai culture." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. This historical debut rips along at the speed of a deftly wielded, flashing katana sword...Well anchored in history, beliefs, and traditions of feudal Japan, this novel is a personal psychological trip...educational, engrossing, and just plain fun-to-read...should appeal to a wide variety of readers, especially those who loved James Clavell's Shogun." - Library Journal
"A fascinating, exciting book, beautifully observed. Kirk avoids clichés at every turn, and creates characters of great depth. An absolute gem." - Conn Iggulden, New York Times Bestselling author of Genghis: Birth of an Empire
"I've been fascinated by Musashi Miyamoto since I first read The Book of Five Rings in college. David Kirk's Child of Vengeance restores my faith in historical fiction to bring lost worlds to life. Bravo! The keenest and most vivid evocation of the inner life of the East since James Clavell's Shogun." - Steven Pressfield, New York Times Bestselling author of Gates of Fire
This information about Child of Vengeance was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Kirk, now 26, first became interested in Japanese history when his father gave him a copy of James Clavell's Shogun. Years later he would be inspired to write his dissertation on samurai cinema. Kirk now lives in Japan, where he now works as an English-language teacher.
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