The runaway bestseller by a middle-aged white academic who, in this lyrical first novel, effectively impersonates Sayuri, a formidable geisha in the celebrated Gion district of Kyoto in the years before WWII. A major feat of literary impersonation, the novel is rich in period detail and ceremony. Sayuri's rise from humble rural beginnings to practically goddess-hood is all the more poignant because of the contrast with her not-so-pretty or talented sister, also sold into servitude, who becomes instead a prostitute in a bad part of town.  (JPN45, $14.95)