The story of a yakuza's daughter is tellingly recreated in a mature manga format, illustrated by a female Japanese manga artist in a lively and inspired fashion. A poignant and eye-opening true-life memoir, YAKUZA MOON is a shocking yet intensely moving first-person account of one woman's experience of growing up in Japan's yakuza society. Born into the family of a wealthy yakuza boss, Shoko Tendo lived her early years in luxury. But labelled "the yakuza kid," she became the victim of bullying and discrimination from teachers and classmates at school, and of her father's drunken rages at home. The family then falls into debt, and Tendo falls in with the wrong crowd. By the age of fifteen she is a gang member, by the age of eighteen a drug addict and her twenties are marked by a series of abusive and violent relationships with men. Tendo sinks lower and lower. After the death of her parents and her own attempt at suicide, she begins a tortuous, soul-searching re-evaluation of the road she has taken. An unconventional act of empowerment helps her finally take control of her life, leading to redemption and a new chance. Now translated into 14 languages, this is the universally appealing story of a young woman's successful struggle to escape from a life of ostracism and abuse, and a glimpse into Japan's closed yakuza world from an insider's viewpoint.

Yakuza Moon is SHOKO TENDO's first book and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Tendo lives in Tokyo with her baby daughter and works as a freelance writer.