Shipwrecks: A Gothic Historical Novel of Deadly Secrets and Retribution on the Japanese Coast (Harvest Book)

Although Akira Yoshimura is one of Japan's most prolific and celebrated authors, his work is little known outside of his native country. Shipwrecks, one of the first of his 20 novels to be translated into English, tells the tale of Isaku, a 9-year-old boy who is forced to scrounge to provide for his desperately poor family. For the people of the medieval Japanese village in which Isaku lives, the only relief from near starvation comes in the guise of the shipwrecks of the title. To lure merchant ships off course, the villagers light huge bonfires. But even their success turns to disaster when the wreckage of one such ship includes not only rice, but smallpox.