A Tale Unasked

In thirteenth-century Japan, there lived a woman called Lady Nijo. Born into a noble family, she became by turns an imperial concubine, the mother of four children by three different men, and, last of all, a wandering nun. Reading this beautiful translation of her memoirs, you feel as if Nijo were sitting beside you, whispering her story across the centuries that divide her world from ours. – Dr Janine Beichman

Lady Nijo (Author)

Lady Nijo (1258-after 1307) was a Japanese noblewoman, poet and author. She was raised in the court of Emperor Go-Fukakusa and became his concubine, before being expelled for her affairs with other men. She became a travelling Buddhist nun and eventually wrote a memoir, Towazugatari (‘A Tale Untold’). It survived in a single copy and remained hidden for years in the library of the Imperial Family Household before being rediscovered in 1940.

Meredith McKinney (Translator)

Meredith McKinney is a translator of Japanese literature. She lived in Japan for twenty years and is Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra. Her translations for Penguin Classics include The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Kenko and Chomei, two novels by Natsume Soseki and an anthology of classical Japanese travel writing, Travels with a Writing Brush.