Falling Blossom

Nov 29, 2024 5:58 PM

Author:Momoko Williams,Peter Pagnamenta

Falling Blossom

Simon Winchester, author of A Crack in the Edge of the World and The Professor and the Madman:

"The essence of this inexpressibly beautiful story will remain with me, I believe, for the rest of my life. This exquisitely crafted account of the loves and lives of Arthur and Masa, Violet and Kiyoshi - such very ordinary names, yet names that conceal extraordinary passions and confusions - is a tone poem to duty and honour, courage and enduring passion, set against the fantastically rich recent histories of Japan and Ireland, England and France. It is a long time since I have read so moving and haunting a book"

This is the true story of an extraordinary love affair. When Captain Arthur Hart-Synnot, a disciplined, conservative officer, met Masa Suzuki, a bright, beautiful Japanese girl, when the British army posted him to Tokyo, he fell for her and within weeks they were living together. Arthur told her she was the 'supreme woman in the world' and they pledged they would love each other for the rest of their lives. But he could not tell the army about her, and they faced almost insuperable barriers of race and class. When he was recalled to London the question was whether Masa had, all the time, just been what expatriates referred to as 'a temporary wife', an exploited Madam Butterfly.

Though separated for years at a time, and by huge distances, they remained devoted to each other. Based on a cache of over 800 letters found in Tokyo, the story is set against the wider history and the wars of the first half of the twentieth century. This is a record of enduring love and great loss, where events beyond Arthur and Masa's control dictate the final tragic outcome.

Reviews

This is a tenderly moving, expertly told love-story of events beginning over a century ago but not brought to light until 1982. Of all the Madame Butterfly tales, it ranges furthest, its ripples continuing when one has finished reading it

—— Guardian

The love story between a British Army Officer and a young Japanese woman that remained a secret to the word until their letters were found is more astonishing than the opera it mirrors

—— Express

A powerful and remarkable love story

—— London Evening Standard

Falling Blossom is a meticulous and entrancing work...touching, revealing and erudite

—— Independent on Sunday

Seductive and intriguing story, told with sympathy and insight

—— TLS

Outstanding . . . A classic of its kind

—— William Boyd, Books of the Year, Herald

Here Shephard skilfully weaves the story into that of the other armies....and how (it) is richly told

—— Dr David Stafford , BBC History Magazine

Shephard does not seek to draw pat lessons or modern conclusions from any of this. He is content to tell us what happened next, in detail, and often vividly...a riveting and often entirely fresh story, shrewdly assembled, very well told.

—— Peter Preston , Guardian

Ben Shephard's account of his demanding and important subject is a triumph, His has unearthed new and moving testimony by former DPs and has burrowed into official and personal papers without ever letting his deep scholarship get in the way of the riveting story he has to tell...With a sureness of touch he interweaves the personal stories of those who were involved in the allied relief effort at all levels ...For anyone who is curious about the coalition of interests and beliefs which slide across this particularly American see-saw, reading Shepherd's brilliant book is a must

—— Nicholas Stargardt , History Today

Ben Shephard's impressively readable account is replete with detailed personal testimony

—— Tim Kirk , TLS

Ben Shephard's impressively readable account is replete with detailed personal testimony. It is a reminder not only of the real achievements of relief workers in the 1940s, but also of the continuing problem of refugees across the globe, many of whom - as in Iraq - have suffered the consequences of far less satisfactory programmes of relief and reconstruction.

—— TLS

Deeply impressive... Well researched, well-written and often moving

—— New Statesman

Carter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms

—— Will Self , New Statesmen Books of the Year

A depiction of bloated power and outsize personalities in which Carter picks apart the strutting absurdity of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe

—— Financial Times Books of the Year

Takes what should have been a daunting subject and through sheer wit and narrative élan turns it into engaging drama. Carter has a notable gift for characterisation

—— Jonathan Coe , Guardian Books of the Year

Facts and figures say a great deal, but the most compelling accounts come from those who featured in the battle. Like any good author, Holland allows the participants to tell the story in their own words

—— The Good Book Guide

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