[/floatl]"THE TEAHOUSE FIRE explores the shifting cultural ground of late 19th century Japan through the story of Aurelia, an orphaned American girl taken in by Yukako, the daughter of Kyoto's most important tea master, herself destined to change the fate of the Way of Tea...Inspiration for THE TEAHOUSE FIRE came from five years of weekly tea ceremony study in New York and five weeks of daily tea study in Kyoto, where Avery spent most of 2004-2005. The novel will be translated into Spanish, German, and Dutch, and just came out this winter both in hardcover and on audiobook."
"Urako worships Yukako, as an adored older sister at first, and later with the passion of a desperate, unrequited lover. We watch their relationship develop the same way we watch Japan's relationship with the West: through the eyes of a child who is part of the drama, who sees more as she matures and learns to understand what is not being said." (From here)
