Description
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2020, a vivid work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman in Edo – now known as Tokyo – and a portrait of a great city on the brink of momentous change.
‘Deeply absorbing’ Guardian
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in 1804 in a village in Japan’s snow country and was expected to lead a life much like her mother’s.
Instead – after three divorces and with a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval – she ran away to follow her own path in Edo, the city we now call Tokyo. Stranger in the Shogun’s City is a rare, captivating portrait of one woman as she endeavours to recreate herself and her life, and provides a window into the drama and excitement of Japan at a pivotal moment in history. ‘Marvellous… Stanley builds up a picture of Tsuneno’s world, immersing us in an experience akin to time travel’ TLS* Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography 2020 ** Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2021 ** Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ** Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown *
