As a society, we have come to embrace ourselves with the love of fantasy tales, which are continually breaking box office records and book sales world wide. With the world presenting us with everlasting uncertainties, fantasy helps bring a short-lived resolution to our troublesome world by sweeping us into imaginative journeys of imagination, speculation and inspiration. Imaginative journeys such as the novel `Across the Nightingale Floor' by Lian Hearn and the film "Pirates of the Caribbean" have been widely successful in terms of sales and its ability in broadening our knowledge.

Noble heroes, evil warlords, doomed lovers, magical powers, loyalty, betrayal and sacrifice- all set against the exotic backdrop of an imaginary medieval Japan. This is the world Lian Hearn has created in Across the Nightingale Floor, the imaginative journey of sixteen-year-old Tomasu, survivor of a massacre brought upon by the evil warlord Iida...