Hiroshima Joe: A Novel

by Martin Booth

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312268053
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	01/04/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Martin Booth (1944-2004) was the bestselling author of novels including Hiroshima Joe, Islands of Silence, and The Industry of Souls, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another novel, A Very Private Gentlemen, was adapted into the 2010 movie, The American, starring George Clooney. He also wrote several nonfiction books, including Cannabis: A History, Opium: A History, and the memoir Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood. Booth was born in England, but spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong, a location that would deeply inspire his writing. He moved back to England at the age of 20, and started his literary career as a poet. He worked as a schoolmaster, a job he held until 1985, when the success of Hiroshima Joe allowed him to devote himself full-time to his writing. At the time of his death in 2004, he was living in Devon, England.

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher