The Outsider: The Life and Work of Lafcadio Hearn: The Man Who Introduced Voodoo, Creole Cooking and Japanese Ghosts to the World

"Lafcadio Hearn understands contemporary Japan better, and makes us understand it better than any other writer, because he loves it better." —Basil Hall Chamberlain

Born in Greece and abandoned as a child, Lafcadio Hearn lived the life of an exile. He travelled the world and became a famous writer but always felt like an outsider—in Dublin, London, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and French-speaking Martinique. To him, none of these places felt like home.

Hearn's life in America was punctuated by a ...