The Chrysanthemum Trilogy

Albert Manners is magnetised by the power, wealth and wisdom can bring. A descendant of poor immigrants, he works hard to build an empire that spans twenty countries. Power corrupts him with infidelity, arrogance, greed, and recklessness. Angelique, his wife, conquers loneliness and frustration with illicit affairs and an illegitimate child. Their only son, Mikhail, inherits paranoia and suspicion and is intent on erasing his father’s fortitude and resilience with his own brand of impotent management. The conflict that follows disintegrates the family in different directions and brings the company Chrysanthemum Coronet Inc., the company his father founded into disrepute. Who emerges from an unexpected quarter to take over the Company? Read the gripping story of wasted fortunes and follow Carol Markham as she discovers how the mantle of maturity finally comes to rest on her shoulders. Every page promises to keep you on this journey, right down to the last page. The Chrysanthemum Trilogy: Transition is the first part of a race from construction to destruction to reconstruction. From tragedy comes triumph. Or does it?

Essential reading for anyone interested in Japanese culture, this unsurpassed masterwork opens an intriguing window on Japan. Benedict's World War II-era study paints an illuminating contrast between the culture of Japan and that of the United States. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a revealing look at how and why our cultures differ, making it the perfect introduction to Japanese history and customs.

For fans of Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a deeply moving novel that follows two Korean sisters separated by World War II. Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. She will find her way home. South Korea, 2011. Emi has spent more than sixty years trying to forget the sacrifice her sister made, but she must confront the past to discover peace. Seeing the healing of her children and her country, can Emi move beyond the legacy of war to find forgiveness? Suspenseful, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive, White Chrysanthemum tells a story of two sisters whose love for each other is strong enough to triumph over the grim evils of war.

The Chrysanthemum Palace introduces Bertie Krohn, the only child of Perry Krohn, creator of TV's longest running space opera, Starwatch: The Navigators (which counts Jennifer Aniston and Donald Rumsfeld among its obsessed fans). Bertie recounts the story of the last months in the lives of his two companions: Thad Michelet, author, actor, and son of a literary titan; and Clea Freemantle, emotionally fragile daughter of a legendary movie star, long dead. Scions of entertainment greatness, they call themselves the Three Musketeers; between them, as Bertie says, "there was more than enough material to bring psychoanalysis back into vogue." As the incestuous clique attempts to scale the peaks claimed by their sacred yet monstrous parents over a two-week filming of a Starwatch episode in which they costar, Bertie scrupulously chronicles their highs and lows -- as well as their futile struggles against the ravenous, narcissistic, Convulsive and poignant, The Chrysanthemum Palace is a tragic tale of friendship and fate writ large -- a tour de force by a major writer whose narrative delivers devastating emotional impact.