Synopses & Reviews
In 1959, a young woman, Haruko, marries the Crown Prince of Japan. She is the first nonaristocratic woman to enter the mysterious, hermetic monarchy. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress, Haruko is controlled at every turn, suffering a nervous breakdown after finally giving birth to a son.
Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman to accept the marriage proposal of her son, with tragic consequences. Based on extensive research, The Commoner is a stunning novel about a brutally rarified and controlled existence, and the complex relationship between two isolated women who are truly understood only by each other.
Review:
“Schwartz leaps with prodigious skill. . . . Through painstaking research and a humane sensibility, he has opened a window on a strange, cloistered world.”
The Wall Street Journal
Review:
“A mesmerizing novel full of tenderness and compassion, one that convincingly invests the Japanese empress's voice with all the nuance it demands.”
The Washington Post
Review:
“Expertly evokes the sense of powerlessness and isolation that mark both royal life and bad marriages. . . . An artful meditation on the limits of love and duty.”
People
About the Author
John Burnham Schwartz is the author of the novels
Claire Marvel,
Bicycle Days and
Reservation Road which was made into a motion picture based on his screenplay, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Connelly. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages and his writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Boston Globe, and Vogue. He lives with his wife and son in Brooklyn, New York.
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