About this productProduct InformationAn alluring tour de force: a brilliant debut novel told with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism as the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. "In Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is producted to the highest buyder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love, always elusive, is scorned as illusion. Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Through her eyes, we see the decadent heart of Gion -- the geisha district of Kyoto -- with its marvelous teahouses and theaters, narrow back alleys, ornate temples, and artists' streets. And we witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri, with little money and even less food, must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms."Memoirs of a Geisha" is a book of nuances andProduct IdentifiersPublisherRandom House Audio Publishing GroupISBN-100739321676ISBN-139780739321676 Product Key FeaturesLanguageEnglishDimensionsWeight15 OzWidth5.1in.Height1.6in.Length5.8in.Additional Product FeaturesFormatCD, Audio ProductDewey Edition22Read byBernadette DunnePublication Year20050000Dewey Decimal813.54AuthorArthur GoldenEdition DescriptionMovie Tie-In, UnabridgedPublication Date2005-11-08Reviews"Astonishing . . . breathtaking . . . You are seduced completely." Washington Post Book World "Captivating, minutely imagined . . . a novel that refuses to stay shut." Newsweek "A story with the social vibrancy and narrative sweep of a much-loved 19th century bildungsroman. . . . This is a high-wire act. . . . Rarely has a world so closed and foreign been evoked with such natural assurance." The New Yorker From the Trade Paperback edition.
