This is the story of Aurelie, an orphan who starts a new life in Japan...and is known thereafter as "Urako." The author portrays Japan during a period of massive social change, seen through the eyes of our outsider narrator.

The book is jam-packed with interesting facts about 19th-century Japan before the forces of modernization set in. Women blackened their teeth and shaved their eyebrows; samurai would not handle money; and men visited the mysterious "floating world," a nighttime place of gambling, geisha girls and prostitutes.

It's a dense novel, though it's written in a lively, accessible manner, so plan to devote a week or two to it, and really lose yourself in Japan, which is really the main character of the story. If you're not interested in Japan, this is probably not the book for you; but if you're at all intrigued by this country of islands and politeness, you should check it out.

Many historical novels feel all too "set" in a distant time and place, and reading them is like having to walk gingerly through poorly constructed scenery. The Tea House Fire grows out of its setting with the grace and sureness of an organic process that we watch unfold with wonder. The extraordinary details on every page mean that the research for this novel must have been massive, yet it reads as though the author simply grew up in ninteenth-century Japan and assimilated the knowledge of the world she describes as she has her American narrator asssimilate it: as the adoptive daughter/sister in a family that has been teaching the art of tea for centuries. The Tea House Fire creates a world you will want to spend time in. The prose is delicate and original; the characters are unfamiliar and getting to know them slowly is an unusual pleasure, as is making acquaintace with the world that is drawn for us by Ellis Avery in such fine strokes.

This books provides an inside view to the meeting of the old ways of Japan with the new ways of the West. It follows the speaker as she grows up as a "displaced foreigner" in Japan trying to make her own fate. She romantically idealizes several of the women in her life, often to her own peril. Men are potrayed rather negatively throughout the book, however. This prejudiced view of the sexes in my opinion lessened the credibility of the speaker. Parts of the novel are tedious but I suppose describing tea ceremony has to be.

Barbara Caruso brings to life Ellis Avery's novel THE TEAHOUSE FIRE, a story of Japan as it's opening up to the West for the first time. One Aureila Bernard, an American orphan in 1866 Koyoto, observes the changes taking place and sees the transitions women are experiencing in their culture in this outstanding, warm drama recommended for general-interest lending libraries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The Teahouse Fire hits all the bases. Beautiful language, detailed but relevant descriptions, rich historical context, characters you love to spend time with, and a complex and exciting plot.