PRAISE

“The author’s quiet prose artfully evokes Kurosawa’s world, in which every space and person has a spiritual dimension… The novel succeeds in re-creating a time and, perhaps more importantly, a worldview that many readers will enjoy getting lost in.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“C.A. Parker is either a thoroughly accomplished novelist or an out-and-out time traveler, for he has given us the kind of window into 18th Century Japan that suggests he lived and walked there. With this engrossing debut, Parker proves himself a master at reanimating lost worlds.”
—Louis Bayard, author of Pale Blue Eye and Jackie & Me

“Samurai are everywhere these days with news that Disney+ has committed to two more seasons of hit series Shōgun, so it’s the perfect moment for Running Wild Press to publish Song of the Samurai by C.A. Parker….Parker’s prose is light and flowing, making for an easy, pleasurable read, while the humor and drama are balanced with spiritual contemplation and depictions of the practice of religion in pre-modern Japan.”
–Iain Maloney, Metropolis Japan

“Song of the Samurai delivers a richly detailed story of a Japanese monk who embarks on a personal quest for enlightenment.” 
—Novels Alive 

SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• What inspired you to write Song of the Samurai?
• Can you speak about the women characters in the novel, and their place in society in mid-18th century Japan? 
• One of the central characters in this novel is not a person but an instrument. What can you tell us about the shakuhachi?
• What makes this story relevant  today? 
• The F/X remake of Shogun has been receiving a great deal of positive press. Where does Song of the Samurai connect with the narrative of Shogun? What are some of the differences in the stories?
• Your protagonist, Kurosawa Kinko, was a historical figure. How much of your story reflects the life of the actual Kinko?
• Kinko’s spiritual practice as a Zen monk incorporates the disciplines of music and martial arts. How are these apparently disparate disciplines related?
• Kinko spends an extended section of this novel on the sacred mountain of Koya-san with an eccentric hermit. Why was that sojourn important to the story?
• You are by training an ordained Christian clergy person. Where does your interest in Zen Buddhism come from?
• You also practice martial arts and play the shakuhachi. How did you begin that and how did it impact the novel?
• Song of the Samurai tells a self-contained story. Are there more chapters in Kinko’s life that you hope to write?
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