The Samurai of the Red Carnation

An irresistibly winning romantic historical adventure, set in medieval Japan and tinged with fantasy, revolving around the art of waka poetry

"A charming, magical, picaresque journey through medieval Japan, filled with mystery, meaning and wonderful imagery" -- Sean Lusk, author of The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley

Matsuo is expected to be a samurai, like his father before him. But as he is training in the art of war, he realises he was destined for a different art altogether. Turning his back on his future as a warrior of the sword, he decides instead to do battle with words, as a poet.

Thus begins a story of intrigue and adventure, passion and betrayal. Matsuo's quest to find his true self, and his true love, takes him across medieval Japan, through bloody battlefields and burning cities. But his ultimate test will be the uta awase - a tournament where Japan's greatest poets engage in fierce verbal combat for the honour of victory, and where Matsuo will find himself fighting for his life.

The Samurai of the Red Carnation is both a thrilling, swashbuckling adventure and a sensitive meditation on love and poetry. Denis Thériault, is known for his award-winning novel, The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, which also made extensive use of original poetry in Japanese styles and which won the author the Japan-Canada Book Prize.

Author: Denis Thériault
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 06/24/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.00w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9781782279693
ISBN10: 1782279695
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | Medieval
- Fiction | Action & Adventure
- Fiction | World Literature | Japan

About the Author
Denis Thériault is an award-winning author, playwright and screenwriter living in Quebec. He has long been fascinated by Japan, and Japanese poetry in particular. Haikus were central to his The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, which was an international bestseller, translated into sixteen languages across the world, won the Japan-Canada Book Prize and was selected for the Radio 2 Book Club in the UK. The Samurai of the Red Carnation once again revolves around traditional Japanese verse, and is set during the medieval golden age of poetry in Japan.

Louise Rogers Lalaurie is a writer and translator from French, whose translations include Louise Mey's The Second Woman, Frédéric Dard's The King of Fools and The Inspector of Strange and Unexplained Deaths by Olivier Barde-Cabuçon. Her work has been shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award, the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature and the Crime Writers Association International Dagger.