The Night of Baba Yaga - Akira Otani

Paperback. Faber & Faber. 2024. New condition.

Fierce, mixed-race fighter Shindo has been kidnapped by the yakuza. After brutally beating most of them in an attempt to escape, she is forced to work as a bodyguard to protect the gang boss's sheltered daughter Shoko, a strange, friendless eighteen-year-old who could order Shindo's death in a moment.

At first Shindo derides Shoko's naivete, but as the men around them grow ever more bloodthirsty and controlling, she becomes ferociously devoted to her charge. However, she knows that if things continue as they are, neither woman can expect to survive much longer.

But could there ever be a different life for two people like them?

Akira Otani's English-language debut is an explosive thriller that moves boldly across time and gender to tell an exhilarating story about devotion, violence - and getting free.