The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

The Last Samurai

by Helen DeWitt

An ambitious and critically acclaimed debut, Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai is back in print at last. This remarkable novel follows Sibylla, an American academic who finds herself a single mother in London after a misguided one-night stand. With a genius-level IQ, her son Ludo is a prodigy—so much so that he causes havoc at school and is home-schooled after just one month.

Looking for male role models, Sibylla repeatedly shows Ludo Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Seven Samurai. But Ludo becomes obsessed with a different quest: finding the father he has never met. At just eleven years old, inspired by his own interpretation of the classic film, he embarks on a secret journey.

Ludo’s perilous adventure leads him through London, where he will face threats and violence on a quest for the father he doesn’t know. He may not live to see twelve, or he might just find his own real-life samurai and save a mother who considers boredom a fate worse than death. This is a story that proves it is not destined to be a cult classic, but a true classic in its own right.

Summary

The Last Samurai is the first novel by American writer Helen DeWitt. It follows a single mother and her young son, a child prodigy, who embarks on a quest to find his father.