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    The Teahouse Fire
    The Teahouse Fire
    The Teahouse Fire
    Audiobook17 hours

    The Teahouse Fire

    Written by Ellis Avery

    Narrated by Barbara Caruso

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The fates of two women-one American, one Japanese-become entwined in this sweeping novel of nineteenth century Japan on the cusp of radical change and westernization.

    The Japanese tea ceremony, steeped in ritual, is at the heart of this story of an American girl, adopted by Kyoto's most important tea master and raised as attendant and surrogate younger sister to his privileged daughter Yukako. Pasts shrouded in secrets and mysterious traditions rocked by modernization make The Teahouse Fire a compelling and provocative story, lush in details and epic in scope.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateDec 6, 2006
    ISBN9781598874877
    The Teahouse Fire

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    Reviews for The Teahouse Fire

    3.5/5

    11 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book was very hard to get through for me. I was drawn in to the beginning, but had trouble staying the course. I did eventually finish it, but it took at least 3 weeks, which for me is a long time. I'm glad I finished it, but I wouldn't highly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Improbable but interesting - a 19th century Franco-American girl ends up in Japan with a missionary uncle and ends up running away and is taken in by a family whose fortune lies in the art of tea. Listening to the audiobook, I did have some trouble keeping track of the characters and the politics but I enjoyed it overall.
    • 4/5
      This book was a great story and also a great lesson in the art of temae (tea). I fell in love with the tradition and ceramony that the main family lives by in this book. The live and story of Urako herself was what seemed to make it a little more exciting. She threw herself into their lives and never looked back at her childhood (as it was so painful.) She has such a range of emotion all the time and it can be felt at times so vividly that it may shake you up a little. I loved the book and will recommend it to others.
    • 3/5
      An interesting book, but it seems like the author wrote it more to tell about the ins and outs of the tea ceremony than because she had a real story to tell. The narrative was a bit boring, but the images the author created made it worth sticking with.
    • 1/5
      LIfe is too short to spend time reading a book you don't like! I gave up on this one
    • 5/5
      I love books about 16th century Japan! This one was a great book, tells about the lives of 2 women, 1 american, and one Japanese. very moving!
    • 3/5
      Daughter sneaks around and become adept at the tea ceremony.
    • 5/5
      One of my all time favorite books.
    • 4/5
      The tale of "The Teahouse Fire," by Ellis Avery is set in late nineteenth century Japan. The story plunges deeply into the smoky brew of an entangled relationship, between the daughter of a Japanese Tea Master and a French orphan seeking asylum from a life as a convent domestic. Like the roots of a plum tree, the two girls grow up twisted around each other in an ambiguous context of love and cultural dissonance. Japan edges towards modernism as the characters seek identity and spiritual meaning, in a tragic denouement guaranteed to keep the pages turning.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written and well paced book set in Japan during the transitional years of the Meiji Restoration (1865-1890). I read it before and during a trip to Japan, and it helped me place so much that I saw and experienced there- aesthetic sensibilities, gift giving and packaging, serious business sense, embracing and rejecting the latest technologies, unease about tradition vs. modernity, etc. Yes, it is somewhat long, and there isn't a lot of action outside the Shin family compound, but well crafted and highly recommended for those with an interest in Japanese culture and society.