This book is a favourite of mine, which I have read perhaps twice a year since I bought it, and which never fails to leave me with complex emotions, happiness, sorrow, and a sense of peace, it is a beautiful and rich story that I can't help but love.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a story about the geisha Sayuri. Sold to an okiya, a geisha house, at the age of eight, she struggles through unhappily until she falls in love with the Chairman. Realising that the only way to reach him is by becoming a geisha, she works hard at overcoming the obstacles in front of her, including her nemesis, the wicked Hatsumomo.

With the help of her mentor Mameha, she becomes a successful geisha in Gion, but there always seems to be something in her path toward the Chairman.

This is a richly evocative novel, detailing the flower and willow world of the geisha. The beautiful kimono, the teahouses, the study and work, all is described in a gentle voice, the voice of Sayuri.