It is the second historical novel written by Emilio Miranda.
It is a book of contrasts. Discusses the cultural differences between East and West, two deeply opposites ways of life in every sense, describing the fictional arrival of the first Portuguese to Japanese soil and it also enters into business relationships that arise from his chance encounter. It is also the personal account of John Boavida who decides to document the discovery of a civilization that feels far removed from his reality, but that constantly fascinates him. The Portuguese and the Japanese people are two completely disparate cultures and it is expressed in this historical novel. The most curious thing is that after centuries of this mutual stumbling, I believe that the writing of Emilio Miranda helps us better to understand an ancient culture, who's social and moral values still cause us certain strangeness until today. The book is a fictionalized window, to be sure, but the author sought to document himself about the habits of the Japanese people and it shows in the reading, I enjoyed mainly the intention to show not only how the Portuguese saw the Japanese as well, as the other side of the mirror, what the Japanese thought about the us. The description of everyday life in the Nipponese villages, their beliefs and the way society was stratified help us understand a bit more of this oriental culture. Emilio Miranda has a clean, lean writing without too many frills, but the holds the reader by it's tell structure that seems almost real, is the diary of a Westerner in Eastern lands. Good reading.
