The Pillow Book of Lady Kasa - Tapa dura

A grand tenth century love affair told by a beautiful lady-in-waiting in an ancient Japanese Pillow Book, as stylistically perfect and lovely as light glittering among reeds on the Inland Sea at evening.

Or is it a brilliant fake by the lovesick archeologist who pens the Introduction.... The presentation of the setting an astonishingly recreated tenth century Japan is as precise and evocative as the finest Japanese brush painting.

Critical Comment

Lady Kasas infatuation with a palace guard unfolds in a series of vividly imagined, obliquely sexual scenes and conversations....

The Globe and Mail, March, 2001

...a delightful introduction to the attitudes and amusements of Japans ancient courtly society. History has rarely been easier to read.

Patricia Morley, Canadian Book Review Annual, 2000