000			02003cam a2200253 a 4500
001			057240
005			20231009193051.0
008			030209s2008 nyu 000 1 eng
010			_a2007015391
020			_a9780385515719
050	0	0	_aPS3569.C5658 _bC66 2008
082	0	0	_aFIC SCH
100	1		_aSchwartz, John Burnham
245	1	4	_aThe commoner _b: a novel _c/ John Burnham Schwartz
250			_a1st ed
260			_aNew York _b: Nan A. Talese _c, c2008.
300			_a351 p. _c; 22 cm.
520			_aIt is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman a rising star in the foreign ministry to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic. Told in the voice of Haruko, meticulously researched and superbly imagined, The Commoner is the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarified and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other. With the unerring skill of a master storyteller, John Burnham Schwartz has written his finest novel yet.
650		0	_aNobility _x--Fiction
650			_aWomen _z-Japan _v--Fiction
651		0	_aJapan _x--History _z--20th century _y--Fiction
655		7	_aHistorical fiction
942			_cMO
999			_c258669 _d258669