The writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850 - 1904), born on Lefkas as the son of a Greek mother and an Irish father and raised by relatives in England, was sent to America as a young man without means. There, he became a journalist and author, working in Cincinnati and New Orleans, and later in New York, while also spending an extended period in the French Antilles. He developed an early interest in Japan, traveling there in 1890 and never returning. He even adopted a Japanese name and married the daughter of a samurai. His books about Japan had a significant impact on the Western perception of the country. Monique Truong, who has published two novels so far, has been working for many years on a novel about Hearn. She particularly values his journalistic work and has compiled a selection of his best reports. Some texts appear here for the first time in German. A gr.