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Empire of the Sun

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Empire of the Sun

Written by: J. G. Ballard
Narrated by: Samuel West
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About this listen

The heartrending story of British boy Jim’s four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the second world war. Filmed by Steven Spielberg.
Now available for the first time on CD.

Based on J. G. Ballard’s own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy’s 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 author’s 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.

©2008 J G Ballard; (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers 20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction War & Military

Critic Reviews

Praise for the paperback:

‘An extraordinary achievement.’ Angela Carter

‘A remarkable journey into the mind of a growing boy…horror and humanity are blended into a unique and unforgettable fiction.’ Sunday Times

‘An immensely powerful novel – in a class of its own for sheer imaginative force.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Remarkable…form, content and style fuse with complete success…one of the great war novels of the 20th century.’ William Boyd

‘Gripping and remarkable…I have never read a novel which gave me a stronger sense of the blind helplessness of war…unforgettable.’ Observer

‘Ranks with the greatest British writing on the Second World War.’ The Times

‘A brilliant fusion of history, autobiography and imaginative speculation. An incredible literary achievement and almost intolerably moving.’ Anthony Burgess
All stars
Most relevant
I was a little skeptical of it being an abridged version, but reading it a day after watching the film, this audiobook is perfect for a psychological character study of Jim Graham in tandem with the film. This book showcases perfectly where all Speilberg used the book as a script, and where else he took his own creative liberties.

If you love the film, you really need to read this.

While abridged, the details aren't lost.

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