Tales of the Otori is a historical fantasy set in The Three Countries, an isolated part of an imaginary country (the Eight Islands) which is loosely based on Sengoku-era Japan.
The series consists of five books which span the life of the hero, Takeo, who is born into a reviled sect known as the Hidden. He also carries in his blood an inheritance from the Tribe, a group of families of spies and assassins who still possess supernatural powers (far-seeing, far-hearing, speed of movement, invisibility) and from the Otori clan into which he is eventually adopted by its dispossessed leader, Otori Shigeru.
The five books in chronological order are:
- Heaven's Net is Wide (2007)
- Across the Nightingale Floor (2002)
- Grass For His Pillow (2003)
- Brilliance of the Moon (2004)
- The Harsh Cry of the Heron (2006)
At the beginning of Heaven's Net is Wide the young Shigeru prepares to take over the leadership of the Otori clan and fight off the challenge from the Iida clan, but his defeat at Yaegahara leads to his dispossession. In Across the Nightingale Floor he thinks he has discovered the assassin who will kill Iida Sadamu – the boy he adopts and names Takeo. Grass For His Pillow deals with the relationship between Takeo, and Shirakawa Kaede, the heir to the domain of Maruyama. In Brilliance of the Moon the first foreigners and the first guns appear, signifying the challenges of modernity that face Takeo and Kaede. By the end of The Harsh Cry of the Heron the entire Eight Islands have been unified by one powerful general in the name of the Emperor, and the era of warlords fighting among themselves is over.
Tales of the Otori has been described as "a colossal meditation on a few simple questions; can peace be gained through the exercise of war? What is the nature of the relationship between the sexes? To what extent are civilised principles merely a cover for greed?" (Sydney Morning Herald) It is also the author’s deeply felt response to the culture and landscape of Japan.
Tales of the Otori is published in thirty two countries. Across the Nightingale Floor was published in Japan in 2006 under the title Mamono no Yami.