{"product_id":"dewitt-helen-the-last-samurai-9780811225502","title":"The Last Samurai","description":"Helen DeWitt's 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was \"destined to become a cult classic\" (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so \"Why not just, 'destined to become a classic?'\" (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo's shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn't know: his father's name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He'll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Used - good","offer_id":53186818507094,"sku":"9780811225502-G","price":5.48,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"Used - very good","offer_id":54106178650454,"sku":"9780811225502-V","price":16.79,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0925\/5829\/5382\/files\/product_image_9780811225502_1.jpg?v=1781245853","url":"https:\/\/www.momoxbooks.com\/products\/dewitt-helen-the-last-samurai-9780811225502","provider":"momoxbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}