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bookswithchaipai's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
9th August 1945 – The Nagasaki Bombing. Hiroko was in it, her fiancé and family died in it and she lived to tell the story. Hibakusha – the word designating people like Hiroko, who live in the aftermath of a bombing and live in terror of radiation poisoning and bearing mutant children.
“Those nearest the epicenter of the blast were eradicated completely, only the fat from their bodies sticking to the walls and rocks around them like shadows.” The burnt shadows being the only remnant of life having lived.
You would think the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb is lesson enough to never drop another one. And then Nagasaki happened. And then thé India-Pakistan nuclear bomb testing. Is the human brain that fickle?
This book gutted me to the core and made me question a lot of things. Hiroko’s journey of life is something to learn from.
She took her sorrows from Nagasaki to Delhi hoping to find a balm amongst her fiancé’s relative. Here, this Urdu-speaking Japanese woman experienced the class distinctions in India, fell in love with a Muslim, and then saw India break apart into India and Pakistan, which made them flee to Istanbul. And as if that was not enough, they were not allowed to come back as Indian citizens being marked as deserters.
That was not the end. There was more in store for her. The pall of nuclear war and politics followed her wherever she went. Taking away her husband, wrenching away everything she called her own, Ensnaring her son in its clutches.
This is not a story of a bombing and its aftermath alone. It is so much more than that. The father’s dreams for a son, friends whose connections are stronger than family, the bane of having born a Muslim.
As I was halfway through the book, I knew I would want to reread it and I feel this is testimony enough as to how powerful it is. But these words have not done justice to the emotions I felt as I read this book and the thoughts that went through me.
These words said by Hiroko keep ringing in my ears even now – “I want the world to stop being such a terrible place.”
“Those nearest the epicenter of the blast were eradicated completely, only the fat from their bodies sticking to the walls and rocks around them like shadows.” The burnt shadows being the only remnant of life having lived.
You would think the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb is lesson enough to never drop another one. And then Nagasaki happened. And then thé India-Pakistan nuclear bomb testing. Is the human brain that fickle?
This book gutted me to the core and made me question a lot of things. Hiroko’s journey of life is something to learn from.
She took her sorrows from Nagasaki to Delhi hoping to find a balm amongst her fiancé’s relative. Here, this Urdu-speaking Japanese woman experienced the class distinctions in India, fell in love with a Muslim, and then saw India break apart into India and Pakistan, which made them flee to Istanbul. And as if that was not enough, they were not allowed to come back as Indian citizens being marked as deserters.
That was not the end. There was more in store for her. The pall of nuclear war and politics followed her wherever she went. Taking away her husband, wrenching away everything she called her own, Ensnaring her son in its clutches.
This is not a story of a bombing and its aftermath alone. It is so much more than that. The father’s dreams for a son, friends whose connections are stronger than family, the bane of having born a Muslim.
As I was halfway through the book, I knew I would want to reread it and I feel this is testimony enough as to how powerful it is. But these words have not done justice to the emotions I felt as I read this book and the thoughts that went through me.
These words said by Hiroko keep ringing in my ears even now – “I want the world to stop being such a terrible place.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Gun violence
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