''The Diamond Chariot'' (russian: Алмазная Колесница, the Russian term for the " Diamond Vehicle" (''kongōjō'') school of

Tantric Buddhism Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

) is a historical mystery novel by internationally acclaimed

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n detective story writer

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ ...

, published originally in 2003. It is the tenth novel in Akunin's

Erast Fandorin Erast Petrovich Fandorin (russian: Эраст Петрович Фандорин) is a fictional 19th-century Russian detective and the hero of a series of Russian historical detective novels by Boris Akunin. The first Fandorin novel (''The Winte ...

series of historical detective novels. As with all of the other Fandorin novels, ''The Diamond Chariot'' was hugely successful in Russia, selling out its first printing of 200,000 copies in a week.A champion for the bourgeoisie: reinventing virtue and citizenship in Boris Akunin's novels , National Interest, The , Find Articles at BNET.com
/ref> ''The Diamond Chariot'' is available in English since September 2011 from

Orion Books Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It was founded in 1991 and acquired Weidenfeld & Nicolson the following year. The group has published numerous bestselling books by notable authors including Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, ...

, translated by

Andrew Bromfield Andrew Bromfield is a British editor and translator of Russian works. He is a founding editor of the Russian literature journal ''Glas'', and has translated into English works by Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich, Irina Denezhkina, Victor Pelevin, ...

Overview

The novel consists of two volumes. In the first one, Dragonfly-Catcher—set in

during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

in 1905, Fandorin is charged with protecting the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

from Japanese sabotage. In the second volume, ''Between the Lines''—set in Japan in 1878 and 1879, the story of Fandorin's arrival and life in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

is told, including the encounter with his

servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

Masa and finding a

Ninjutsu , sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some tra ...

teacher. The first volume is structured as a

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a '' kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or ...

, with each chapter corresponding to a syllable, while in the second part, a haiku is placed at the end of each chapter.

Adaptation

* In 2012, the author, Boris Akunin has announced in his own blog that the book will be adapted into TV series, that will be produced by

Central Partnership Central Partnership (russian: Централ Партнершип) is a Russian film distribution and production company founded in 1995. The distributor was acquired by Russian gas company Gazprom in 2014. History Central Partnership started ...

. Sergey Ursulyak is set to direct the series.

References

External links

Etext
in Russian, of ''The Diamond Chariot''
Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond Vehicle, The 2003 novels Novels by Boris Akunin Novels set in Russia Fiction set in 1905 Novels set in Japan Fiction set in 1878 Fiction set in 1879 21st-century Russian novels Russian historical novels Russian detective novels Japan in non-Japanese culture