
Across the Nightingale Floor
4.55
614 ratings·2,750 reviews
In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the ruthless warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot, ensuring no assassin can cross it unheard. Young Takeo has been raised in a remote mountain village among the Hi...
- Pages
- 294
- Format
- Hardcover
- Published
- 2002-08-26
- Publisher
- Macmillan
- ISBN
- 9781405000321
About the author

Lian Hearn
57 books · 0 followers
Lian Hearn's beloved Tales of the Otori series, set in an imagined feudal Japan, has sold more than four million copies worldwide and has been translated into nearly forty languages. It is comprised of five volumes: ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR, GRASS FOR HIS PILLOW, BRILLIANCE OF THE MOON, THE HARSH CRY OF THE HERON a...
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Community Reviews
2,750 reviews4.5
614 ratings
5
45%
4
30%
3
15%
2
7%
1
3%
Χαρά Ζ.·10 years ago
So, I decided to share my personal story with the book *Across the Nightingale Floor*. When I was about 15 or 16 years old, a classmate, a good friend of mine, lent me this book. I read it, I loved it, and then my brain completely erased all the data I had on the book. I mean, literally, I remembered nothing apart from liking it. Life happened, and I forgot about it. But last year, I was in a bookstore and saw the second book of the series sitting on the shelf in front of me. The title was "Gras...
Phrynne·10 years ago
It deserves a whole star just for that amazing title! How could you not read a book called Across the Nightingale Floor? So the title was great, the cover was good but how was the story? Well it was pretty good. I enjoyed the Japanese feel to it although by the end I was a little tired of all the honour which obliged people to do anything other than what they wanted to. There were some good characters not all of whom made it to the end of the book! ( a lot of heads rolled). Altogether it was a g...
Mariel·14 years ago
I was protesting the Chinese food place down the block today. It's ridiculous. None of their offered cuisine is truly Chinese. If I want to eat American I'll go to Pizza Hut, thank you very much. If that wasn't bad enough I later had lunch at the restaurant next door. They had these little cookies. If you break open the cookies there's a piece of paper that pops out with a message of something that might happen to you. This time I didn't eat the paper first and read what it said. "The Tales of t...
Nicholas Armstrong·16 years ago
Okay. I'll try to be as kind and heartfelt as possible. Across the Nightingale Floor is insultingly bad. Normally a bad book is just that, but Across the Nightingale Floor is actually infuriatingly bad. Firstly, it's a fantasy book set in feudal Japan. That's fine. I would think that with it being set in Japan, Lian Hearn would have learned anything about the place, but she apparently did not. This book is written as if Hearn simply Googled "Japan" and then decided to write a book on it. I'll go...
Rodrigo·2 years ago
Muy ameno, me ha gustado. Es de cocción lenta y trata básicamente de como llevar a cabo una venganza en busca de justicia hacia su pueblo, familia y "señor"Es una novela ambientada en Japón pero con unos toques sobrenaturales, o capacidades especiales, de nuestro protagonista el cual pertenece a una especie de "ninjas", sin el saberlo.Lo que menos me convenció fue el instant love entre nuestros protagonistas, en fin... son jóvenes.Valoración: 7.75/10Sinopsis: Cuando Takeo descubre que su pueblo ...
Dilushani Jayalath·5 years ago
A fascinating story with riveting characters caught in an intricate web of revenge, romance and betrayal set in feudal Japan. To any who are interested in the Asian culture with its beguiling history and elaborate sense of mystery that is oft knotted in its roots, this book would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately, even with every single element that would have ultimately been the journey of a successful trilogy, the execution fails which renders the story to not quite reach the finish line wi...
Bradley·7 years ago
This is a light Feudal Japanese fantasy that focuses heavily on growing up to be an assassin, trembling with desire and love, and reveals that drive the main character to dire measures.Does most of this sound familiar in YA fiction? It should. :)Fortunately, I enjoy light Feudal Japanese fantasies... NARUTO!!! and while this is fairly light on the magic, (sorry, Naruto fans,) the writing is comfortable and predictable and I can firmly put this in the comfort-food category of literature.Special t...
colleen the convivial curmudgeon·14 years ago
1 1/2In my review for Graceling I stated that I was a bit of a sucker for romance elements in action type stories. I have, in the past, admitted to, probably, over-rating certain books because the romance element gave me the warm-squishies, even though other aspects of the book were lacking or, at times, downright annoying. (See 'Fire Study'.)So it's a bit ironic that, for this book, I think the romance element between the two protagonists was the weakest aspect of the book. It was so eye-rollin...
Felicia·16 years ago
This book was great, I would love to see it made into a movie. It was like reading the plot of a great Kung Fu movie, with a touch of "Memoirs of a Geisha" and some magic thrown in. I will eagerly read the next book.
Chris·18 years ago
This is a weird book for anyone who has more than a passing knowledge of Japan.The author is a great fan of Japan, its culture and its history. That's obvious just by looking at her name, Lian Hearn, which is a pseudonym. According to Wikipedia, it's a contraction of "heron," an important bird in the Tales of the Otori series, but it's also the surname of one of the most famous Western experts on Japan, Lafcadio Hearn. She's gone to great lengths to instill Japanese culture into every part of th...




