num_pages: 391
description: "Like attending seasons of elegant tea parties—each one resplendent with character and drama. Delicious.”—Maxine Hong Kingston The story of two women whose lives intersect in late-nineteenth-century Japan, The Teahouse Fire is also a portrait of one of the most fascinating places and times in all of history—Japan as it opens its doors to the West. It was a period when wearing a different color kimono could make a political statement, when women stopped blackening their teeth to profess an allegiance to Western ideas, and when Japan’s most mysterious rite—the tea ceremony—became not just a sacramental meal, but a ritual battlefield. We see it all through the eyes of Aurelia, an American orphan adopted by the Shin family, proprietors of a tea ceremony school, after their daughter, Yukako, finds her hiding on their grounds. Aurelia becomes Yukako’s closest companion, and they, the Shin family, and all of Japan face a time of great challenges and uncertainty. Told in an enchanting and unforgettable voice, The Teahouse Fire is a lively, provocative, and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability.
language: English
title: The Teahouse Fire
titlecomplete: The Teahouse Fire
characters: Shin Family, Urako
genres: Asia, Historical, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Asian Literature, Queer, Japan, Romance, Fiction, Lesbian
ratings_count: 3561
places: Kyoto
awards: awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Stonewall Book Award
category: Literature, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Lesbian Debut Fiction
publisher: Riverhead Hardcover