Beautifully written account of lives connected by horror and courage:
This book was recommended to me, and I started reading it expecting it to be a dry account of post-Hiroshima horrors.
Instead, I was taken on a journey through time. The story is told through the eyes of the author’s father during the aftermath of the bombings, and then the authors during her subsequent visits to Japan on her quest to get to know the ‘real him’ after his death. There is a biographical and autobiographical story here as well as the accounts of the people who perished or survived.
Her telling of the gruesome aftermath of the bombs was such that I could visualize and empathize but not be so repulsed as to not read it, and bringing actual survivors to life on the page and learn of their strength is inspiring.
The bombing of Hiroshima happened before I was born and I never really thought much about it but this has opened my eyes to an important event in world history which should never be repeated.
Sharon Robinson, Australia
