The New York Times Book Review - Gordon G. Chang
In unforgettable fashion, Hanley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of the Korean War, one of the most savage conflicts in history, through eyewitness accounts of 20 people, most of them victims.
The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Hanley's granular approach, which makes such compelling reading.
The New Yorker
This account, expanded from their Pulitzer Prize-winning reportage, raises questions about military preparedness and civilian involvement that are as relevant today as they were a half a century ago.
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Hanley paints an extraordinary portrait of the war's complexity and devastation. This is an essential account of America's "forgotten war.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic. A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War.”
Coffee or Die
Ghost Flames is a masterful, often brutal representation of the Korean War. Readers with a limited knowledge of the conflict will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities cast upon ordinary people, from the soldiers who fought to the civilians trying to escape. This historical account revitalizes old memories and provides an outlet for healing from the traumatic events suffered by the victims. It leaves the reader with the unmistakable realization that this unpopular war should not be forgotten.
The New York Times Book Review
In unforgettable fashion, Hanley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of the Korean War, one of the most savage conflicts in history.
Sydney Schanberg
[I]n a class to stand with such work as Hersey's Hiroshima and Keneally's Schindler's List...Powerful history.
Library Journal Starred Review
An extraordinary kaleidoscope of human experiences in a catastrophic forgotten war.
Bruce Cumings
Charles Hanley has written a people's history of the Korean War, a fascinating, illuminating and highly readable work that opens a new window on the experiences of ordinary people in a critically important, but mostly unknown, war. His narrative is unflinching in recounting the war's horrors, the crimes by all sides. Readers will learn much that is entirely new.
author of The Long Gray Line Rick Atkinson
A sober and absorbing account of a very dark chapter in American military history...Meticulously researched, scrupulously fair, and exceptionally well-written...Fine reading and fine history.
NYTimes bestselling author and Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park
The stories of twenty people who lived through the Korean War are told with such skill that I grew to care about every one of them. Ghost Flames is an unforgettable depiction of the effect of war on ordinary people, and a stunning achievement.
author of Sea of Thunder and Ike's Bluff Evan Thomas
Hanley's genius is to tell this remarkable story from the perspective of twenty very different participants—ranging from a general to a grunt, from a refugee to a p.o.w. By deep reportorial digging and gripping in-the-moment narration, he has woven together the saga—sometimes heroic, often disturbing—of an enigmatic war as it really was.
Kirkus Reviews (starred)
A masterly new history...the accretion of astounding detail makes for a vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic. A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War.
Monica Kim
Through the prism of twenty different lives - from a child, a solider, a journalist - Hanley gives us an immensely moving portrait of a war that has still not yet ended. With its unblinking and evocative storytelling of the experiences of those who often go nameless in American accounts of the war, Ghost Flames is unlike any other book on the Korean War. It is, in essence, a close and intimate story of the first US war of intervention in the Cold War era, one that forces us to examine the violent wake of wars the United States has generated since. Building from his previous award-winning journalism on civilian massacres committed by the US military, Hanley raises the urgent question of why the Korean War is forgotten in the United States and reveals the enormous costs that have come with this constant forgetting.
From the Publisher
"A masterly new history...the accretion of astounding detail makes for a vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic. A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"An extraordinary kaleidoscope of human experiences in a catastrophic forgotten war."—Library Journal Starred Review
"Hanley paints an extraordinary portrait of the war's complexity and devastation. This is an essential account of America's "forgotten war."—Publishers Weekly Starred Review
"In unforgettable fashion, Hanley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of the Korean War, one of the most savage conflicts in history."—The New York Times Book Review
"Mr. Hanley's granular approach, which makes such compelling reading."—The Wall Street Journal
"Ghost Flames is a masterful, often brutal representation of the Korean War. Readers with a limited knowledge of the conflict will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities cast upon ordinary people, from the soldiers who fought to the civilians trying to escape. This historical account revitalizes old memories and provides an outlet for healing from the traumatic events suffered by the victims. It leaves the reader with the unmistakable realization that this unpopular war should not be forgotten."—Coffee or Die
“The book is a fast and engrossing haunting read that thoroughly educates while pulling on the heart strings.”—The New York Journal of Books
"Hanley's genius is to tell this remarkable story from the perspective of twenty very different participants—ranging from a general to a grunt, from a refugee to a p.o.w. By deep reportorial digging and gripping in-the-moment narration, he has woven together the saga—sometimes heroic, often disturbing—of an enigmatic war as it really was."—Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and Ike's Bluff
"The stories of twenty people who lived through the Korean War are told with such skill that I grew to care about every one of them. Ghost Flames is an unforgettable depiction of the effect of war on ordinary people, and a stunning achievement."—Linda Sue Park, NYTimes bestselling author and Newbery Medalist
"Charles Hanley has written a people's history of the Korean War, a fascinating, illuminating and highly readable work that opens a new window on the experiences of ordinary people in a critically important, but mostly unknown, war. His narrative is unflinching in recounting the war's horrors, the crimes by all sides. Readers will learn much that is entirely new."—Bruce Cumings, Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History, University of Chicago, author of The Korean War: A History
"Through the prism of twenty different lives - from a child, a solider, a journalist - Hanley gives us an immensely moving portrait of a war that has still not yet ended. With its unblinking and evocative storytelling of the experiences of those who often go nameless in American accounts of the war, Ghost Flames is unlike any other book on the Korean War. It is, in essence, a close and intimate story of the first US war of intervention in the Cold War era, one that forces us to examine the violent wake of wars the United States has generated since. Building from his previous award-winning journalism on civilian massacres committed by the US military, Hanley raises the urgent question of why the Korean War is forgotten in the United States and reveals the enormous costs that have come with this constant forgetting."—Monica Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of History New York University
PRAISE FOR THE BRIDGE AT NO GUN RI:
"[A] truly heart-wrenching tale of survival and heroism...This is an inspiring book — storytelling at its very, very best. Read it."
—Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way
"[I]n a class to stand with such work as Hersey's Hiroshima and Keneally's Schindler's List...Powerful history."—Sydney Schanberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Death and Life of Dith Pran, basis of the film The Killing Fields
"A wrenching story."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"This account, expanded from their Pulitzer Prize-winning reportage, raises questions about military preparedness and civilian involvement that are as relevant today as they were a half a century ago."—The New Yorker
"A sober and absorbing account of a very dark chapter in American military history...Meticulously researched, scrupulously fair, and exceptionally well-written...Fine reading and fine history."—Rick Atkinson, author of The Long Gray Line
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-02-05
A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist forges a masterly new history of the Korean War through character studies of the participants caught in the conflict.
During his 40-year career at the Associated Press, Hanley reported from nearly 100 countries around the world, and his journalistic talents are on full display in his latest book. He also demonstrates a novelist’s touch and a wonderful ear for dialogue and detail. He builds his history via observers’ testimonies about the war, from the initial invasion of South Korea by North Korean troops on June 25, 1950, to the stunning “morning of silent guns” on July 28, 1953. The characters Hanley chooses to highlight aptly represent the diversity of people involved, from refugees and soldiers on both sides to U.S. military leaders like Matthew Ridgway, appointed Far East commander by Harry Truman after certain miscalculations by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. In countless poignant snapshots, the author describes harrowing, often horrific experiences, including those of Sister Mary Mercy at a clinic in Pusan, where “sanitation is abysmal and disease endemic,” and “existing facilities fall far short of what’s needed to deal with the typhoid, typhus, smallpox, and tuberculosis spreading through the refugee population”; and South Korean AP journalist Bill Shinn, who tried to cover the conflict while protecting his family. Elsewhere, Hanley discusses numerous witnesses to the horrendous retaliation by both North and South Korean troops in terms of executions and mass burials as well as American troops’ “depravity” in torturing and raping the local population. The author also details the conditions at the POW camps, including Pyoktong, where a black American soldier endured not only an existence of “simple misery,” but also racist taunts from fellow American soldiers in the camp. In addition to excellent maps and a chronology, Hanley provides photos of the characters and an “After the War” section about each of them. The accretion of astounding detail makes for a vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic.
A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War.
