Maureen Lindley Libri

Peking, 1914. Eight-year-old Eastern Jewel peers from behind a screen as her father, Prince Su, makes love to a servant girl. Caught spying by her thirteenth sister, Eastern Jewel's sexual curiosity sees her banished to live with distant relatives in Tokyo, then forced into a passionless marriage in freezing Mongolia. Increasingly isolated, at night she is plagued by disturbing fantasies and unsettling dreams. But she refuses to be pinned down by anyone - least of all a man - and in the dazzling city of Shanghai she puts her thrill-seeking nature to work spying for the Japanese, spurning everything she once held dear ... Based on the real-life story of Yoshiko Kawashima, Chinese princess turned ruthless Japanese spy, The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel is an intoxicating tale of sexual manipulation and self-discovery that spans three countries and a world war.

Basada en la vida real de Joya de Oriente (tambin llamada Yoshiko Kawashima), esta historia arranca en el mundo del ltimo emperador chino, cuando la protagonista tiene ocho aos y es pillada in fraganti cuando espa a su padre acostarse con una nia de catorce aos. La novela narra en primera persona, al modo de unas memorias, y con ritmo rpido, las dos facetas principales de su vida: la sexual y la de espa. Narrada en primera persona desde la crcel, al final de la Segunda Guerra, justo antes de su ejecucin por los Chinos, por alta traicin.