Gai-Jin

The Epic Novel of the Birth of Modern Japan

By: James Clavell

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The dynamic epic novel of political upheaval and societal change in late 1800s Japan, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell

This epic novel by master writer James Clavell, loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and Anglo-Satsuma War that took place in the late 1800s, is a richly researched, panoramic view of Japan’s budding relationship with the Western powers, its sweeping societal changes, and the political upheaval that followed.

As Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, and a small band of Westerners travel down the Tōkaidō road, they are attacked by two Satsuma samurai, who mortally wound John Canterbury and seriously injure Malcolm, who then finds reprieve in the merchant village of Yokohama after a narrow escape facilitated by the unscathed Angelique.

Angelique Richaud, Malcolm’s penniless but beautiful French companion, is thrown into a world of political intrigue, fierce devotion, unstable family dynamics, blackmail, and secrets as the trading houses battle for supremacy.

With a cast of dynamic and fully recognized characters, Gai-Jin spins a tale of passionate love affairs, devastating loss, intense power struggles, and the fight to survive and thrive in a hostile new land that will leave listeners longing for another foray into Clavell’s extraordinary Asian Saga.

©2015 James Clavell (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

great book. I'm sad to see it end.

I had hoped for an ending as legendary as shogun and tai pan. this book was good all the way through.

Compared to Taipan and Shogun this was mediocre.

Shogun in Taipan are epic books by the same author. This book was much less engaging. In addition, the performance was not as compelling. This may be due to the lack of depth and relation to some of the characters. The voices of all the Japanese characters sounded very similar. Also some of the Japanese word pronunciation was incorrect. If you don't speak Japanese then that won't bother you. This book was just okay. I'm glad I finished it, but I'm also glad it's over.

In so many ways so much better than a movie

Books have such better character development and plot and scenery if you use your imagination. This is a fantastic way to enjoy James Clavell's brilliant writing, and the performance enriches the remake with the accents and characters and inflections.

John Lee's telling of this story was excellent.

Another Clavell work that is excellent in both depth of character and story. Please to anyone interested start with Shogun and follow the tale. You will enjoy the journey.

Awful reading

The reading of this book was awful. The accents were terrible and often the book would say a person yelled or raised their voice and the reader would actually read it quieter. The book itself wasn’t as good as the first two but wasn’t awful.

Gotta love Clavell!

I truly enjoy all of his novels. So rich in history, detail and culture.

The reading and acting are superb!

Not as good as Shogun or Tai Pan but still good

not as good as the first two chronological books but still good. the ending was better than expected.

Another James Clavell Book

This is the third book I read from the Asian Saga series. I have come to expect James Clavell' novel to have extensive background and details of building his characters and the storyline. I have enjoyed the first two books of the series, but I just cannot stomach this one. Maybe because I finished reading Sho-Gun then went straight to Gai-Jun. The storyline and the plot twists were all so familiar.

Even though I came to appreciate the amount of details he put into developing all the characters for the first two books, I have grown tired of learning every tiny detail. Imagine writing a novel of everything you do in all 365 days of the year. That's how I feel about reading these books. After listening to 30+ hours, I just had to stop. I really wanted to like this one as I had enjoyed the previous two, but it was becoming too much of the same thing.

Typical Clavell Brilliance

If you enjoyed the first two of Clavell's Asian Saga, Gai-Jin won't disappoint. Maybe not as good as Shogun, but then again, what is? John Lee's reading was very good as usual.

One of the greats

Loved the story and the narrators performance of it. His changes in accent were pretty spot on and impressive, even if it didn’t make much sense that Japanese people would speak to one another in heavily accented “eengrish”; it still gives the reader the impression the narrator attempted to convey. I was caught up in all of it majority of the time. Well read, and well written.

I definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys long fiction novels with a Last Samurai adventurous vibe, for lack of better comparison. This book surpasses that crud film by far, but you catch my drift.

Give it a shot