Hiroshima Joe: A Novel

Front Cover
Picador, 2013 M10 8 - 304 pages

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.

From inside the book

 

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Page 36
... Wan Chai . Sandingham stepped down and the tram , with much grinding and howling of metal and humming of static electricity , surged off along the sunken road rails towards Causeway Bay and North Point . He negotiated his way through ...
Page 37
... Wan Chai- side . You go ' way ? ' Sandingham leaned on the bar , rubbing the sole of his shoe on the brass rail that ran along the base on his SPRING 1952 37.
Page 40
... would be like if she were not a Chinese bar - girl and he were an executive with Butterfield and Swire , or the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank ; or manager of his own Wan Chai bar . After all , a few of them 40 HIROSHIMA JOE.
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Hiroshima Joe: A Novel
Martin Booth
Limited preview - 2003

Common terms and phrases

asked barrack blood building bunk camp Cantonese centre Chinese cloth dark dead deck door eyes face feet felt ferry fingers fire floor front Garry glass guards hancho hand head hear heard Hideo Wada Hiroshima Ho Man Tin Hong Kong Imperial Japanese Army ingham jacket Japanese Kempetai Kowloon lance-corporal Leung lifted light Lisbon Maru lorry Macau machine-gun minutes Mishima morning moved Nathan Road night officer once opium papaya Peak Tram Pedrick pocket prisoners pulled realised replied rice rifle road roof roomboy round Sand Sandingham knew Sandingham looked Sandingham saw Sandingham watched Sham Shui Po ship shouted side skin smoke soldier spoke standing steward stood stopped street tenko timber yard took tram tree trousers truck turned voice walked wall Wan Chai window wire wooden

About the author (2013)

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 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.

Bibliographic information

TitleHiroshima Joe: A Novel
AuthorMartin Booth
Editionreprint
PublisherPicador, 2013
ISBN1466853980, 9781466853980
Length304 pages
  
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