In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and "opened" Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show—and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American "barbarians" could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures—the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro Okubo—are just slightly more curious than cautious. Within the minstrels Manjiro sensed "the subtleties of spirit that reside in all good men." When Ace and Ned are unwittingly made part of a Japanese plot to undermine the American presence, Manjiro helps them escape into the countryside. Pursued by samurai, torn between treachery and loyalty, Manjiro and the minstrels (along with family, friends, and lovers) make their way across Japan, fleeing a showdown with the samurai that gradually becomes inevitable.
Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is the long-awaited prequel—more than a decade in the making—to Richard Wiley's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel, Soldiers in Hiding. A sword-swinging page-turner infused with a heady mix of Japanese etiquette, American ideals, and Machiavellian philosophy, Wiley's latest novel sparkles as it shapes history into an enlightened drama of the earliest moments of globalization.

Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show (James A. Michener Fiction Series)

Literature & Fiction

WILEY, Richard

United States

University of Texas Press

Soldiers in hiding

Contemporary

Picador

A diverse cast of characters, ranging from an American girl to a Japanese prospector, come together during the Alaskan Gold Rush of the 1890s and make various vital discoveries

Fools' Gold

KNOPF

Soldiers in Hiding

This remarkable novel is not only an imaginative work of the very highest order but a cross-cultural tour de force of extraordinary daring and vision. It begins in Tokyo in 1941, when Teddy Maki and Jimmy Yamamoto, two young Japanese-American jazz musicians, are stranded in Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, drafted into the Japanese army and sent to the Philippines, the scene of bloody conflict with guerrillas and American troops. Rather than act as true soldiers, the two young men attempt to disengage themselves from the savagery of a war in which they are unable to choose sides. But such innocence is impossible to maintain. Thirty years later, Teddy Maki, by then a star of Japanese television, is still haunted by Jimmy's death and his own failure to disobey the order of his commanding officer to shoot an American prisoner. The guilt that poisons his relationship with his wife and son and with the country in which he has chosen to live as a perpetual outsider speaks to the moral issues raised by all wars--from Auschwitz to My Lai.

Signet

Thirty years after World War II, Japanese-American jazz musician Teddy Maki is still haunted by his friend Jimmy Yamamoto's wartime death and his own failure to disobey a commanding officer's order to shoot an American prisoner

Thirty years after World War II, Japanese-American jazz musician Teddy Maki is still haunted by his friend Jimmy Yamamoto's wartime death and his own failure to disobey a commanding officer's order to shoot an American prisoner

Plume

Festival for Three Thousand Maidens

Literary

Indigo

The principal of an international school in Africa, American widower Jerry Neal becomes involved with a group of Nigerian dissidents planning a coup, a relationship that leads to his transformation into a hunted rebel. 10,000 first printing.

Dutton Book

The principal of an international school in Africa, American widower Jerry Neal becomes involved with a group of Nigerian dissidents planning a coup, a relationship that leads to his transformation into a hunted rebel. 10,000 first printing.

Dutton Adult

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WILEY, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by WILEY, Richard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WILEY, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show (James A. Michener Fiction Series)

Soldiers in hiding

Fools' Gold

Soldiers in Hiding

Soldiers in Hiding

Soldiers in Hiding

Festival for Three Thousand Maidens

Indigo

Festival for Three Thousand Maidens

Indigo