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  • Empire of the Sun

  • By: J. G. Ballard
  • Narrated by: Samuel West
  • Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)
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Empire of the Sun cover art

Empire of the Sun

By: J. G. Ballard
Narrated by: Samuel West
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Summary

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.

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
Biographical Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins War & Military
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Critic reviews

‘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

What listeners say about Empire of the Sun

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Profile Image for Shane Stritch

Great read

A first class tale of endeavour against the horrors of war. Jim struggles through impossible odds in this charming yet harrowing rite of passage.

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Profile Image for Christo

Brilliant

An incredible story of a young English boy in the midst of the second word war, looking for every angle to stay part of it and never leave. Don’t hesitate, just read.

Be aware this is the abridged version at 3hrs rather than 13hrs I think!

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