The Teahouse Fire
The Teahouse Fire
Author: Ellis Avery
Desc: "Like attending seasons of elegant tea parties—each one resplendent with character and drama. Delicious.”—Maxine Hong Kingston The story of two women whose lives intersect in late-nineteenth-century Japan The Teahouse Fire is also a portrait of one of the most fascinating places and times in all of history—Japan as it opens its doors to the West. It was a period when wearing a different color kimono could make a political statement when women stopped blackening their teeth to profess an allegiance to Western ideas and when Japan’s most mysterious rite—the tea ceremony—became not just a sacramental meal but a ritual battlefield. We see it all through the eyes of Aurelia an American orphan adopted by the Shin family proprietors of a tea ceremony school after their daughter Yukako finds her hiding on their grounds. Aurelia becomes Yukako’s closest companion and they the Shin family and all of Japan face a time of great challenges and uncertainty. Told in an enchanting and unforgettable voice The Teahouse Fire is a lively provocative and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability.