First published 2002
An Indian officer lies dying in a Japanese prison camp, his mind drifting to polo matches in colonial India. Amelia Earhart faces her last moments as Japan mobilizes for war. An elderly American veteran remembers the Japanese assault on the Philippines and the brutal Bataan Death March. These interconnected stories move between Southeast Asia, Australia, and the United States during World War II's Pacific Campaign. Murray follows ordinary people pushed to survive through extraordinary circumstances. In bombed cities and crowded camps, no side emerges victorious. Each character confronts the fluid nature of memory and time. The Indian officer clings to fragments of his former life. Earhart grapples with her fate. The veteran wrestles with decades of survival. Their stories reveal how war strips away illusions of triumph and conquest, leaving only the raw human need to endure and remember.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Australia, India, Japan, Philippines, Southeast Asia, United States
Period: World War II
208 pages · Paperback · Mariner Books
Content warnings: war