by Kai Bird
First published 1998
Kenji Nakamura walks through the rebuilt streets of Hiroshima in 1965, twenty years after the atomic bomb destroyed his childhood home. The city has risen from ash and rubble, but the memories refuse to fade. As a survivor working to document other hibakusha stories, Kenji confronts the gap between official narratives and lived experience. His interviews with fellow survivors reveal how trauma shapes identity across generations. When American researchers arrive seeking testimonies, Kenji must decide whether sharing painful truths serves healing or exploitation. The novel follows his journey through a landscape where progress and remembrance exist in constant tension, exploring how individuals rebuild not just cities but their sense of self after unimaginable loss.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Hiroshima
Period: 1965
584 pages · Paperback · Pamphleteer's Press
Content warnings: death