Hungry Ghosts

More than four centuries ago, Japan lies ravaged by famine and civil war. Takeshi is a young warrior who is under a curse. After an ambush by enemy soldiers, he is left temporarily blinded, but is rescued by a monk. Takeshi thinks that surely no one can help him with the curseuntil he finds out that his new monk friend used to be the legendary samurai Taketsura, wielder of the sword Lightning-on-the-Water. Together with the orphan girl Kiyoko (a formidable young swordswoman in her own right), can these three keep each other alive during the supernatural threats of Japan's era of civil war?

HUNGRY GHOSTS revisits the work of Lafcadio Hearn, a Victorian-era European writer who, in his book KWAIDAN: STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE THINGS (the most famous of his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories), told a story of Isogai Heidazaemon Taketsura, a samurai who renounced his old life and became a wandering priest when Japan lay ravaged by famine and civil war.
This novel brings to life a different imagining of Taketsura's wanderings, giving him two teenagers to accompany him, a young orphan girl whose grandfather taught her the blade, and a young soldier under an oni's curse that threatens to turn him into a monster. In the midst of post-war famine and dangers, the three must face death, (other) monsters, and of course ghosts some of which are their own.

Dettagli