Long Nights Alone: Love and Sorrow in Ancient Japan

Fujita's novel focuses on the beautiful Bellflower, a young woman in 10th Century Japan whose parents encouraged her to marry an aristocrat from a prominent family. A proud, exceptionally intelligent woman, Bellflower consents primarily out of respect for their wishes, but realizes shortly after her wedding that she must share her new husband's love and attention with his first wife, as well as with other women. Loneliness and frustration compel her to begin the diary on which this intricate tale is based.