Gate to Kagoshima

They lay… Her heart torn to ribbons. How would she ever let him go now? 2005: While researching her Japanese ancestors, Isla travels from Scotland to Kagoshima. There, a vicious typhoon and a strange white gate in a deserted shrine tumbles Isla back to 1877 and the dawn of the Satsuma Rebellion, the conflict that heralded the end of the samurai. Keiichirō Maeda, a samurai with eyes that promise the world, introduces Isla to a way of life only previously encountered in books, and Isla begins to wonder if she has found her true home. But as the samurai muster against what she knows will be a futile battle and the end of everything they hold dear, Isla is increasingly anxious. Should she tell the man she now loves what history has taught will happen to the samurai, or should she let Keiichirō die the glorious death he so believes in, proud to the end that he remained a faithful warrior? And if that does happen, can Isla ever find her way back to her modern-day life in the Highlands? Only time can tell…

Reviews