Lord Otori Takeo and his consort Kaede have ruled for over sixteen years. The Three Countries are rich, peaceful and flourishing. The sacred birds, the houou, nest at Terayama and a fabled creature, the kirin, has appeared on their shores. Heaven seems to smile on them.

Yet their very success has attracted the attention of the distant Emperor and his general, the warlord Saga Hideki, who covet all the wealth of the Three Countries, and especially Takeo’s heir, his eldest daughter, Shigeko, now of marriageable age.

At the same time the violent acts and betrayals of the past will not lie buried. The renegade Tribe family, the Kikuta, seek revenge on Takeo for the murder of their leader; they have an eager ally in his brother-in-law Arai Zenko, who has never been able to forget or forgive his own father’s shameful death.

No one escapes the Tribe forever

Takeo has many other concerns, above all for his younger daughters, the twins Maya and Miki, whose strange talents lead them into the world of shadows and ghosts. And other secrets that cannot be kept hidden. Everything that he and Kaede have achieved is threatened.

The Harsh Cry of the Heron is the dazzling continuation of the ‘Tales of the Otori’, an unforgettable epic with a vast emotional landscape, a classic work that crosses genres, genders and generations.