Across the Nightingale Floor
core novel 2002 Tales of the Otori
Record
| First published | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.06 (46,372 ratings, collected 2026-08-21) |
| Page count | 305 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781573222259 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Across the Nightingale Floor opens in a world modeled on feudal Japan, where sixteen-year-old Tomasu, a member of a persecuted religious community known as the Hidden, survives when warriors of the warlord Iida Sadamu destroy his village and kill his family. He is rescued by Otori Shigeru, lord of a rival clan with old grievances against Iida, who adopts the boy, renames him Takeo, and begins training him as a warrior and potential heir. As Shigeru is sent to negotiate a marriage alliance on the Otori clan's behalf, Takeo meets Kaede, a noblewoman held as a hostage by a rival house, and the two are drawn toward each other despite the political forces keeping them apart.
Where it sits
- Universe: Tales of the Otori
- Series: Tales of the Otori core; position 1 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Lian Hearn
Notes
- From the series record (Tales of the Otori): Heaven's Net Is Wide is a prequel published last; the internal story order differs from publication order.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Tales of the Otori: position 1 of 5: next Grass for His Pillow (2003)
Sources
← Tales of the Otori dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.