Madame Pearl

Beautiful, brilliant, and dangerously unwilling to live by the rules of men, Ruriko Shoda has learned what society permits a woman to possess, and what it expects her to surrender.After a marriage born not of love but of revenge leaves her wealthy and independent, Ruriko becomes one of Tokyo's most fascinating figures. Admirers gather around her. Young men mistake her attention for devotion. Behind her elegance, however, lies a private war against the conventions that have governed women's lives and desires.When Shinichiro Atsumi encounters the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of a young acquaintance, his search for answers leads him directly into Ruriko's orbit. What begins as suspicion becomes fascination, and fascination becomes something far more dangerous.First published in 1920, Kan Kikuchi's Madame Pearl is a provocative novel of desire, revenge, freedom, and the destructive consequences of treating the human heart as a battlefield.