I read this book a couple of years ago and was drawn in by the orient setting and the characters who at the times seemed interesting with enough depth and detail to keep the story flowing. Overall it was Fantastic and its sequels maintain the high standards of this book. This book is classed as a cross over from Young Adult to Adult audience and due to its contents of sex, occasional language intricate plot I would say 15/16 years old and above and it is a good book for adults too. This is a very intelligent book with war and romance at its centre along with believable characters that draw you even deeper into the story. And later he meets a beautiful girl called Kaede and they instantly fall in love with each other which makes things a lot more complicated and introduces the theme of Romance into the book. Shigeru protects him and brings him to the relative safety of his own domain in Hagi and teaches him many things but soon things become complicated as a member of the Tribe turning up who shows Takeo the skills he has inherited from his deceased father which allows him to go invisible, have sharper hearing than a cat, make a double of himself to distract opponents and put people to sleep with a few seconds of staring. From that point onwards Tomasu life changes forever and his name is replaced with Takeo Otori to prevent him from being discovered as one of the hidden. Tomasu manages to escape after entering the village and as he flees from his pursuers he bumps into a man named Shigeru Otori and he saves Tomasu's life. In one of the Hidden villages called Mino we meet the main character Tomasu who is a young and adventures boy who likes to explore the nearby forest every day and it is this innocent habit that saves his life when his village is attacked by the most powerful man in the Three Countries which is Ida. There are warriors like samurai and assassins like ninja's called the Tribe but there are groups of people that are entirely fictional like the Hidden who have very controversial religious beliefs that result in them being disliked by the rest of the Three Countries. This book is set in the fictional land of the Three Countries but it is pretty much identical to Japan from anytime between the 6th century to the late 18th.

The nightingale floor book