Hiroshima Joe

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 comprise a clear-eyed heroism that is as genuine and true as it is unexpected.

Praise

"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

" A remarkable piece of writing . . . Outstanding."—New Statesman

"Horror contrasts with beauty . . . A poignant vision of life's inevitable continuation."—Library Journal

"Booth is a storyteller of rare power."—Booklist

"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

About the Author(s)

Martin Booth

Martin Booth is a critically acclaimed novelist and film writer. His novel, The Industry of Souls, was short-listed for the Booker Prize. His most recent nonfiction books include The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Opium: A History. An inveterate traveler, Martin Booth frequently broadcasts for the BBC

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