Awards
Staff Pick
Tsuneno, the errant daughter of a Buddhist priest, is determined to take control of her own life and to live it on her own terms. Using the letters she wrote (as well as letters written by other family members), Amy Stanley paints with extraordinary detail life in midcentury Japan, and the city of Edo in particular. I was completely enraptured with this book. Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford award, Stranger in the Shogun's City is bound to delight anyone who enjoys history. A very engaging read. Recommended By Sheila N., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo — the city that would become Tokyo — and a portrait of a great city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West.
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces — and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval — she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak.
With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture — and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions.
Immersive and fascinating, Stranger in the Shogun’s City is a revelatory work of history, layered with rich detail and delivered with beautiful prose, about the life of a woman, a city, and a culture.
Review
"Absorbing....A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy." Wall Street Journal
Review
"This sped-up reversal of the city’s demise is like a magic trick, the same one Stanley has accomplished over the previous two hundred pages, where a lost place appears to the reader as if alive and intact." Harper's Magazine
Review
“Using a trove of documents about her downtrodden subject, the author lifts the veil on a half-remembered world of beauty and cruelty.” The Economist, best of roundup
Synopsis
*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award*
*Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo--the city that would become Tokyo--and a portrait of a great city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West.
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother's. But after three divorces--and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family's approval--she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak.
With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry's fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno's life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture--and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions.
Immersive and fascinating, Stranger in the Shogun's City is a revelatory work of history, layered with rich detail and delivered with beautiful prose, about the life of a woman, a city, and a culture.
About the Author
Amy Stanley is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband and two children, but Tokyo will always be her favorite city in the world.