Katherine Govier

"Suddenly motherless, Vera finds herself in the care of her distant grandfather, a well-established traveler and merchant. He spins her wonderful stories of his early life, of paintings, pearls, and the adventures of those who harvest and trade them." "But, when the old man dies, Vera finds herself alone again; her sole support is her late grandfather's mistress, a pearl diver. On the island that is her new home, she is at first a stranger, but is soon befriended by another loner, a ceremonial sword polisher; even as she learns the divers' skills and becomes more part of island life, she finds a safe haven in him." "Then the worst happens. Vera is forced to return to Canada by a father whom she had long thought dead. World War II breaks out and Japan is now the enemy. The idyll is over. The return home would always be hard: the life with a father she had never known; the discoveries of the mysterious past of her beloved grandfather; the entry into urban society. But hardest of all is the feeling of betrayal when she sees the pictures of that ceremonial sword being handed to Hitler. Can she ever reconcile her present with her past?"--BOOK JACKET.

A desperate mother is caught between truth and deception when her young son is born of unusual circumstances with a unique gift of recognizing the truth. They must avoid a diabolical plot to seize the boy and use his gift to engineer a superior race of humans.

Recounting the story of her life, Oei plunges us into the colorful world of nineteenth-century Edo, in which courtesans rub shoulders with poets, warriors consort with actors, and the arts flourish in an unprecedented moment of creative upheaval. Oei and Hokusai live among writers, novelists, tattoo artists, and prostitutes, evading the spies of the repressive shogunate as they work on Hokusai's countless paintings and prints. Wielding her brush, rejecting domesticity in favor of dedication to the arts, Oei defies all expectations of womanhood--all but one. A dutiful daughter to the last, she will obey the will of her eccentric father, the man who created her and who, ultimately, will rob her of her place in history.

Reflective writings on topics that are taboo to speak of in female culture.

Reisverhalen van binnen- en buitenlandse auteurs.

Lambda Literary Award-winning editor Richard Canning brings together all new work by Edmund White, Dale Peck, James McCourt, Andrew Holleran, and others.