THE SIGN OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM

Suspended in delicate imagery and among the many layered feuds between the Samurai clans of the Genii and Heike is the subdued quest of the nameless orphan Muna, who flees the burial of his peasant mother to search for a warrior father identifiable only by a small chrysanthemum tattoo. Muna's conflicting loyalties develop slowly as he is first befriended by the renegade samurai Takanobu and later adopted by a severe, perfectionist swordmaker. Desperate for some sort of security, Manu is persuaded by the wily Takanobu who claims to be his father to steal a sword from his master, but after months of hiding, the disillusioned Muna returns the valuable weapon and is forgiven. This introspective adventure, in which Muna learns to fred his fortune within himself, will attract those readers who can be sustained by the carefully evoked setting and a realistic, stoical resolution which leaves some questions, philosophic and factual, open-ended.