The Teahouse Fire
The Teahouse Fire is a novel by Ellis Avery set in late nineteenth century Japan published by Riverhead in the US in 2006 and to be published by Random House in the UK as a paperback original. Plot summary

Set in late nineteenth century Japan, The Teahouse Fire is the story of Aurelia, a young French-American girl who, after the death of her mother and her missionary uncle, finds herself lost and alone and in need of a new family. Knowing only a few words of Japanese she hides in a Japanese tea house and is adopted by the family who own it: gradually falling in love with both the Japanese tea ceremony and with her young mistress, Yukako. As Aurelia grows up she devotes herself to the family and its failing fortunes in the face of civil war and western intervention, and to Yukako's love affairs and subsequent marriage. But her feelings for her mistress seem doomed never to be reciprocated and, as tensions mount in the household, Aurelia begins to realise that to the world around her she will never be anything but an outsider. Awards and nominations

Winner of the Ohioana Library Fiction Award
Winner of the Lesbian Debut Fiction prize at the Lambda Literary Awards
Winner of the American Library Association Stonewall Book Awards Barbara Gittings Literature Award

References

2006 American novels
Novels with lesbian themes
Stonewall Book Award-winning works
American LGBT novels
Lambda Literary Award-winning works
Novels set in Japan
American historical novelists
Novels set in the 19th century
2000s LGBT novels
2006 debut novels
Japan in non-Japanese culture
2006 LGBT-related literary works