Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme where we randomly select a book from our Goodreads To Be Read list and share it with the world. It’s hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners, so be sure to link back to her site so that we can all see what everyone plans to read!

The Blade of the Courtesans
by Keiichiro Ryu, translated from the Japanese by James M. Vardaman
Historical Fiction
304 pages
Published in October 2008 by Vertical (first published in 186)

From Goodreads: This Naoki Prize-nominated historical thriller marked the auspicious debut of late-blooming author Keichiro Ryu, who in five years made a name for himself as a master of period novels. In The Blade of the Courtesans, a young samurai by the name of Seichiro Matsunaga, trained in sword fighting by none other than the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto, finds himself in Yoshiwara (the pleasure quarters of old Tokyo), per Miyamoto’s dying wishes. In Yoshiwara, Seichiro finds himself defending its denizens against what may be spies from the Yagyu Clan, including one young woman named Oshabu, whose story runs deeper than still water suggests.

The Blade of the Courtesans is at once a quiet ode to human liberties in the face of political warfare and edge-fo-your-seat sword fighting, a Japanese counterpart to the romantic adventures of the medieval knights whose chivalry is rivaled only by their prowess at battle.

I bought a copy of The Blade of the Courtesans at my public library’s book sale last month. The cover caught my eye first and the synopsis made me put it in the box. This will definitely be a 2019 read, and hopefully early on in the year!