The Apprentice

At a remote mountain inn in the northernmost reaches of Japan, a raging blizzard has brought together wayfarers who share only fear, distrust, and suspicion of one another. In the winter of 1903, the country is beset with smallpox and war is brewing between Japan and Russia. Strangers have been seen in the woods surrounding the inn and the small village nearby.
In the flickering shadows of the crowded rooms, the apprentice, charged with running the inn during the owner's absence, finds himself strongly attracted to one of the performers lodged there. His involvement with the mysterious travelers plunges him headlong into a snow-clouded arena of violence and passion. Murder, first love, and heart-stopping chases through the snow drive the apprentice deeper into the entangled plottings of his enigmatic guests.

Although set in Japan in 1903, Libby's first novel avoids the exoticism and antiquarianism of James Clavell and sets its own tightly dreamlike tone. Setsuo, apprentice innkeeper at an isolated mountain hostel in Northern Japan, finds himself marooned with a dubious cast of travelers during a blizzard. His youthful naivete unfortunately draws him not only to a mysterious young woman with a band of itinerant performers but also to a half-frozen and half-crazed visitor. When this stranger flees back into the storm, Setsuo and another guest separately pursue him, leading to robbery and murder. With rumors of political intrigue enveloping the action and the apprentice in possession of a Macguffin as enigmatic as a haiku image, Libby maintains a sense of mystery and claustrophobia through pared-down prose and minimalist characterization. Setsuo's love interest, for instance, is simply the "girl in the cloak of yellow fur" for much of the novel. Even after he learns her name is Yukiko, her actions, history and motives remain ambiguous to the end. Spare and muted, Libby's debut has distilled his diplomatic experiences in Japan with the U.S. State and Defense Departments into a subtle, if sometimes attenuated, story of innocence and temptation halfway across the world and a century ago.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

First novel set in northernmost Japan in 1903, when war is brewing with Russia. The impending war, however, seems to have little to do with Libby's protagonist, an apprentice innkeeper named Setsuo, usually referred to as ``the youth.'' While the youth's master is gone, a terrible blizzard sets in and a motley crew is snowbound, including the various exotic members of a theatrical troupe. A bearded man and a hunter also prepare to enter the inn, but at the last moment plunge onward in the storm. Their action seems suicidal, and, partly to impress a young woman in the troupe, Yukiku, and partly out of genuine concern, the youth chases after them. He witnesses the bearded man's murder of the hunter, but the bearded man spares the youth and tries to warn him of something. The youth in turn, warming his hands on the dead man's body, takes his purse and discovers a mysterious box. Murders ensue, as well as a quite literally steamy scene as the youth spies upon Yukiku in the inn's hot spring. Though questioned insistently by members of the troupe, the youth stubbornly denies knowledge of the box, thinking he could be linked to the theft of the dead man's purse. The youth is beaten and left for dead, then befriended by a samurai in league with the bearded man. The theatrical troupe are spies, it develops, and Yukiku an enemy seductress. The bearded man is a loyalist who returns with spring to explain that the youth has been a true patriot, shielding his country's war plans. ``Arise. You are reborn,'' the bearded man says. The youth accepts a reward and leaves the inn, his apprenticeship at an end. Mostly atmosphere, but it's a satisfyingly romantic atmosphere, like that of an old, swashbuckling boys' novel dropped down in Japan, with a dash of Yukio Mishima for good measure. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

When Setsuo, an apprentice innkeeper in turn-of-the-century Japan, follows a bearded man into a blinding blizzard, he sets into motion a convoluted set of events. Robbery, murder, love, politics, mystery, and intrigue are all parts of the deadly game, but what exactly is the game and is Setsuo truly a player or merely the pawn of forces he cannot even comprehend? First novelist Libby skillfully devises an exotic and extreme but plausible story, creating fascinating characters and maintaining dramatic tension while dropping false leads along the way. Despite an unresolved Hollywood ending, this is recommended for general and mystery readers, particularly those interested in Japanese history and culture.?Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.