16-year old Philip Hutton is half English, half Chinese and lives in Penang in 1939. When the rest of his family go to England for the summer, he meets a Japanese sensei, who takes him on as a pupil of aikido. Endo-san becomes a huge influence on Philip's life, which is now torn between 3 cultures, Japanese, Chinese and English. As the war takes it inevitable toll on Malaya, Philip struggles to find out who he really is and where his loyalties lie.

Captivating novel, I enjoyed it very much.

Given to a tai chi friend for holiday reading.

I am sorry that I have not until now been able to read this book. It was a really enjoyable, well written and quite a sad story. I wonder how Phillip's life would have been if he had not met Endo san on that day in his young life. Thank you, Amanda, for giving me the book. I have passed it on.