Hiroshima Joe

First published in 1985, "Hiroshima Joe" is one of the most powerful novels about the experience of war. Joe Sandingham was interred in a Japanese slave camp outside Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. Years later, a shell of a man and living in a cheap Hong Kong hotel, his compassion and will to survive define a clear-eyed and unexpected heroism.

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.