"Clear and powerful" (Kirkus)"An esoteric masterpiece" (Yukio Mishima)"A subtle examination of universal female behavior" (People)"[Enchi?s] allusions to the masks of No plays and to the classic The Tale of Genji, the brilliant way she layers and interweaves the ancient, the more recent past and the present are haunting and rich. A fictional enchantment" (Publishers Weekly)"Enchi?s writing has some of the same amniotic fluidity as Tolstoy?s, an almost bodily, floating immersion into the effortless habitat of the story" (The American Reader)Published for the first time in the UK, one of Japan's greatest modern female writersIbuki loves widow Yasuko who is young, charming and sparkling with intelligence as well as beauty. His friend, Mikamé, desires her too but that is not the difficulty. What troubles Ibuki is the curious bond that has grown between Yasuko and her mother-in-law, Mieko, a handsome, cultivated yet jealous woman in her fifties, who is manipulating the relationship between Yasuko and the two men who love her.