Yakuza Moon

Tendo, the daughter of a yakuza (mob) boss, grew up in 1970s and '80s Japan, living through the 'booms' and busts of life on the wrong side of the law. Shoko uses unpracticed but appropriately blunt prose to memoir her exceedingly arduous life. From age 12 onwards, Shoko's life was enveloped in drug addiction, poverty, psychological and sexual abuse, miscarriage, attempted suicide and the deaths of many close family members, set against a backdrop of Japan's ultra-secretive yakuza society. This book is recommended for anyone searching for a more thorough and personal understanding of Japanese society, and its darker corners, than is offered by more popular Japanese imports (movies, comic books) featuring similar subject matter.