The Bonsai Tree

Jun Nagai, heir to a prominent Japanese spinning empire, takes his new English wife Kate back to Japan after some time in England absorbing Western technology. This is a marriage his arrogant and powerful mother Itsuko, who controls the family business, finds hard to accept and she sets out to destroy it. June, fighting for his independence, is pulled between the two cultures owing loyalty to both. Thrown into a strange and incomprehensible world, where the role of a wife is so different, Kate is soon stripped of all her romantic illusions. Her struggle to retain her individuality and adapt to her new environment after a shattering encounter led her to work as an interpreter. In a bar, she meets Tarnura, a business rival of the Nagais. When escaping from him, Kate finds herself in Kamagasaki, a place she thought could not exist in the modern miracle of Japan. Here she discovers Japan's race of untouchables, the Burakumi, the gangsters, the destitutes and an ancient area of prostitution like no other in Japan. Her terrifying flight through the red light district - the dustbin of a society in which failure has no place - and her recuseThrown into a strange and incomprehensible world, where the role of a wife is so different, Kate is soon stripped of all her romantic illusions. Her struggle to retain her individuality and adapt to her new environment after a shattering encounter lead her to work as an interpreter. In a bar she meets Tarnura, a business rival of the Nagais. When escaping from him, Kate finds herself in Kamagasaki, a place she thought could not exist in the modern miracle of Japan. Here she discovers Japan’s race of untouchables, the Burakumin, the gangsters, the destitutes and an ancient area of prostitution like no other in Japan. Her terrifying flight through the red light district – the dustbin of a society in which failure has no place – and her rescue by Father Ota, a Japanese Christian missionary, brings her to a new understanding of the culture she has married into.

Meira Chand is of Indian-Swiss parentage and was born and educated in London. She has lived for many years in Japan, and also in India. In 1997 she moved to Singapore, where she is now a citizen. Her multicultural heritage is reflected in her many novels, and The Bonsai Tree is her third novel. Previous titles: A Different Sky (a Waterstones Book of the Month; recommended by Oprah Winfrey; longlisted for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012) The Painted Cage (longlisted for the Booker prize) A Choice of Evils House of the Sun A Far Horizon The Gossamer Fly Last Quadrant