Amid the carnage of a brutal civil war in May of 1968, a Biafran Red Cross doctor and his pregnant Swiss wife are separated while attempting to board the last ship to leave Port Harcourt, Biafra, before Nigerian troops arrive. In Sendai, Japan, in March of 2011, a Japanese businessman is trapped in his earthquake damaged boardroom. As tsunami sirens blare, his final thoughts focus on his family and a hidden son living half a world away. These two incidents, so far removed from each other, are brought together when a digital camera of dubious provenance is bought in a Vancouver pawnshop by a mining executive. It is January of 2013 when Darren Westover, still devastated over his wife's sudden death four years earlier, unwittingly buys the stolen camera. He takes a few sample photos and then plugs the camera into his computer to view the pictures. Once he realizes there are images on the memory card that are not his own, Westover starts a search for the camera's rightful owner, unaware that he will soon find himself on a perilous, trans-Pacific journey that brings events from war-torn Biafra and tsunami-ravaged Japan to a climax on the dark, wet streets of Coal Harbour, Vancouver. The Samurai's Son is the intriguing tale of one man's quest for answers as he attempts to piece together a complex puzzle that leads him not only to the truth, but also to a new beginning.

Called “remarkable” (The Wall Street Journal) and “an ambitious, colossal debut novel” (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is back in print at last Helen DeWitt’s 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was “destined to become a cult classic” (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so “Why not just, ‘destined to become a classic?’” (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo’s shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn’t know: his father’s name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He’ll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.

The Great Continent is at war. The nation of Shogun, home of the samurai; defends their lands from two invading forces. Eblan, a nation of ninjas and Kraken, the land of the knights. Together they seek to conquer the Shoguns. Now three brothers who are the sons of the legendary samurai known as the Great Black Bear, fight to defend their homeland and put a stop to this war once and for all. Welcome to the world Samurai.

Having grown up as an orphan of the streets while sixteenth-century Japan is being ravaged by civil war, Saru seeks to help a samurai rescue his wife from imprisonment by a warlord so they can all flee to a more peaceful life.

First published in 1977, The Samurai has long since become a standard work of reference. It continues to be the most authoritative work on samurai life and warfare published outside Japan. Set against the background of Japan's social and political history, the book records the rise and rise of Japan's extraordinary warrior class from earliest times to the culmination of their culture, prowess and skills as manifested in the last great battle they were ever to fight - that of Osaka Castle in 1615.

This biography of the first foreign-born samurai and his journey from Africa to Japan is “a readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life” (The Washington Post). When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society. In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries and cultures offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan. “Fast-paced, action-packed writing. . . . A new and important biography and an incredibly moving study of medieval Japan and solid perspective on its unification. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Eminently readable. . . . a worthwhile and entertaining work.” —Publishers Weekly “A unique story of a unique man, and yet someone with whom we can all identify.” —Jack Weatherford, New York Times–bestselling author of Genghis Khan

"The customs of all countries are strange to untrained eyes, and one of the most interesting mysteries of my life here is my own gradual but inevitable mental evolution." -Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, A Daughter of the Samurai (1926) A Daughter of the Samurai (1926) by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto is the insightful account of the author's drastic change of culture from feudal Japan to an arranged marriage in the United States. The story reveals her assimilation to life as a merchant's wife and her return to Japan as a widow and mother to two daughters. Sugimoto's keen observations of the American way of life and its sharp contrast to her native Japan provide a rich reading experience for anyone interested in gaining or deepening their understanding of living in two different cultures.