Author Unmasks Identities of Perpetrators, Provides Damning Evidence of Academic Scandal

A fusion of memoir, family chronicle, and author's commentary on his previous book, Palimpsest of Consciousness, Authorial Annotations of My Wife the Metaphysician, or Lady Murasaki's Revenge provides a fascinating view into the lives and minds of two passionate scholars, and the rarefied and often treacherous universe in which they lived. The author pulls no punches, and reveals in unblinking detail the names, dates and places behind the events that animate this astounding story, printing the letters that provide the damning evidence of wrongdoing by some of the academic world's leading players.

(PRWEB) November 26, 2007 -- A fusion of memoir, family chronicle, and author's commentary on his previous book, Palimpsest of Consciousness, Authorial Annotations of My Wife the Metaphysician, or Lady Murasaki's Revenge provides a fascinating view into the lives and minds of two passionate scholars, and the rarefied and often treacherous universe in which they lived.

Told with conviction and wry humor, the story traces the author's life from his beginnings as a stateless Russian child in pre-World War II Japan through his eventual journey to the United States, his meeting and marriage to the Dante scholar, Marianne Shapiro, and their life together. Along the way, we glimpse an extraordinary world, a place where classical music, baseball, ballet, a brother behind the Iron Curtain, a childhood trip to Guam on an Army Air Force transport, high family expectations, a decades-long vendetta by corrupt academics, a family scattered across the continents, a birthday party for General MacArthur's son, and Hollywood High School co-exist in an unconventional balance. Towering above everything is the story of the couple's steadfast love for each other and for their magical daughter.

But most delectably of all, the author reveals the real-life villains behind the academic scandal that fueled his earlier groundbreaking work, My Wife the Metaphysician, or Lady Murasaki's Revenge.

He begins: "To give the reader a proper account of what really happened to Lady Murasaki, here are two documents that will convey the enormity of the evil that she suffered, an evil that was to poison her life till the end."

The author then pulls no punches, and reveals in unblinking detail the names, dates and places behind the events that animate this astounding story, printing the letters that provide the damning evidence of wrongdoing by some of the academic world's leading players.

Illustrated by photos from the author's personal collection, Palimpsest of Consciousness recreates the times and multicultural milieux of an exceptional family moving through a singular era of world history.

The author, Michael Shapiro, was born in Yokohama and educated in Japan and the United States. He and his late wife, the medievalist and Renaissance scholar, Marianne Shapiro, are the authors of several books, including Figuration in Verbal Art. His earlier book, My Wife the Metaphysician, or Lady Murasaki's Revenge, is a work of fiction inspired by the great Japanese literature of upper-class women writers in the mid-Heian period.

Published in conjunction with BookSurge, Palimpsest of Consciousness is available through BookSurge and Amazon. For more information, visit www.MarianneandMichaelShapiro.com.

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