Shogun

James Clavell’s 1975 novel is set at the turn of the seventeenth century, as Japan’s era of warring lords gave way to rule by the shogunate. The English pilot John Blackthorne is shipwrecked on its coast and drawn into the rivalry of feudal lords, above all the ambitious Toranaga, while learning a language and culture utterly foreign to him. Loosely based on real events and figures, it had sold six million copies by 1980 and has twice been adapted for television.