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Overview
One of the most powerful novels about the experience of war, first published in 1985
Captured by Hirohito’s soldiers at the fall of Hong Kong and transferred to a Japanese slave camp outside Hiroshima, Captain Joe Sandingham was present when the bomb was dropped. Now a shell of a man, he lives in a cheap Hong Kong hotel, scrounging for food and the occasional bar girl. The locals call him “Hiroshima Joe” with a mixture of pity and contempt. But Joe—haunted by the sounds and voices of his past, debilitated by illness, and shattered by his wartime ordeal—is a man whose compassion and will to survive define a clear-eyed and unexpected heroism.
Imprisioned by the Japanese and witness to the bombing of Hiroshima, Capt. Joseph Sandingham is the eptiome of the battle-scarred hero.
Editorials
From the Publisher
“Engrossing...unflinchingly graphic.” —The New York Times“A brilliant achievement.” —Daily Telegraph (UK)
“A carefully controlled study of man’s beastliness to man, vividly observed.” —Financial Times
“Fashion[s] a moving drama from the cruelties and pathologies of modern warfare and some moral meaning from the terrible travail of a man who survived, and even transcended it.” —Publishers Weekly