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"When I walked into the office on Monday morning I knew my reputation was in shatters."
Walking Japan's coastal route in search of beauty, William de Lange encounters a string of local characters. Recording their stories, he braids a travelogue deftly interwoven with his own experiences since he ¿rst set foot in Japan some thirty years ago.
A sequel to A Fool's Journey, A Fool's Return is an exploration of one of Japan's perhaps less scenic but certainly most historic routes. Above all, it is a gaijin¿'s exploration of his relationship with a country that continues to defy de¿nition.
About the author
William de Lange was born in 1964 in Naarden, the Netherlands to Dutch and English parents. In the late 1980s, he traveled to Japan, where he supported himself by making traditional Japanese scrolls, working as a carpenter, and writing articles for the Japan Times Weekly. Having studied at Leiden and Waseda universities during the nineties, he lived in Japan for the next decade, studying the art of Japanese fencing under Akita Moriji sensei, eighth dan master of the Shinkage-Ryu. Since then, he has written a large number of books on Japanese history, culture, and art. More recently, he has appeared in the Netflix documentary Age of Samurai. His many books include Samurai Battles, Samurai Sieges, An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles, and The Siege of Osaka Castle. He is perhaps best known for his epic history of the Yagyu clan, and his acclaimed biography of Miyamoto Musashi.
