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  • Empire of the Sun

  • Written by: J. G. Ballard
  • Narrated by: Samuel West
  • Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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Empire of the Sun

Written by: J. G. Ballard
Narrated by: Samuel West
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Publisher's 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 Genre Fiction
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What the critics say

‘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

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What listeners say about Empire of the Sun

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Profile Image for ellen boyce

Very enlightening

I never knew any part of the camps in Japan for POW till I read this. Great story.

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