Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
On an island in the shape of a teardrop live two sisters. One is admired far and wide, the other lives in her shadow. One is the Oracle, the other is destined for the Underworld.
But what will happen when she returns to the island?
Based on the Japanese myth of Izanami and Izanagi, The Goddess Chronicle is a fantastical tour de force about ferocious love and bitter revenge.
The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson.
— TAN TWAN ENG
Daring and disturbing . . . [Kirino is] prepared to push the human limits of this world . . . Remarkable
Lyrical, with an impelling storyline that demands attention . . . a compelling tale, with foundations in an allegory-rich fable that more than deserves its rejuvenation
A dark and lovely feminist retelling of the Japanese creation myth
Enthralling . . . In telling Namima's story, the author reworks the ancient tale of Izanami and Izanaki into one of female solidarity and determined strength . . . Natsuo Kirino eloquently reveals that far from being the weaker sex, women shoulder responsibilities that men are not strong enough to bear
An eerie tale of joy and sorrow, light and darkness, love and vengeance . . . Dark and elemental, it's the perfect kind of tale for Kirino's pen . . . a tantalising introduction to an unfamiliar creation myth
In her wildly far-reaching tale of relations between gods and men, men and women, life and death, darkness and light, Natsuo Kirino tells a peripatetic, global, and truly satisfying love story of how it is to be human
— STELLA DUFFY
It is one of the most unexpected and playful novels to emerge from Japan in recent years . . . a triumph. In its boldness and originality, it broadens our sense of what modern Japanese fiction can be
Be prepared for a book utterly unlike anything we are used to in crime fiction
Got my heart beating
Natsuo Kirino is a leading figure in Japanese crime fiction. A prolific writer, she is most famous for her 1998 novel Out, which received the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, Japan's top mystery award, and was a finalist (in translation) for the 2004 Edgar Best Novel Award.
Rebecca Copeland is a professor of Japanese literature at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, where her research and teaching focuses on women, gender and translation studies. She also translated Kirino's 2003 novel Grotesque.