The second novel in the masterful tetralogy,
The Sea of Fertility—
and “a modern masterpiece” (
The Baltimore Sun)—
narrated by a judge in Osaka who believes he has met the successive reincarnation of his childhood friend Kiyoaki Matsugae.
In 1932, Shigekuni Honda has become a judge in Osaka. Convinced that a young rightist revolutionary, Isao, is the reincarnation of his friend Kiyoaki
,
Honda commits himself to saving the youth from an untimely death. Isao, driven to patriotic fanaticism by a father who instilled in him the ethos of the ancient samurai, organizes a violent plot against the new industrialists who he believes are usurping the Emperor’s rightful power and threatening the very integrity of the nation.
Runaway Horses
is the chronicle of a conspiracy — a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war.