The classic, heartrending story of a British boys four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Newly reissued with an introduction by John Lanchester.
Based on J. G. Ballards own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boys life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.
Rooted as it is in the authors own disturbing experience of war in our time, it is one of a handful of novels by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered but judged.
This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballards works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Zadie Smith, Rivka Galchen, Hari Kunzru and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs from the artist Stanley Donwood.
Books in English for every reader
Ready to explore new worlds? Dive into our books in English.
J. G. Ballard nació en Shangai en 1930, de padres ingleses. En 1961 publicó su primera novela, El mundo sumergido. Esta considerado como uno de los autores más destacados de la denominada New Wave en la ciencia ficción. En 1984 ganó el Guardian Fiction Prize y el James Tait Black Memorial Prize por su novela El imperio del Sol, que fue llevada a la pantalla por Steven Spielberg en 1987. Asimismo, su controvertida novela Crash fue adaptada al cine por David Cronenberg.