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Empire of the Sun
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
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Empire of the Sun
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Summary
Winner of the Guardian fiction prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
From the master of dystopia, comes his heartrending story of a British boy’s four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. 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 20th century will be not only remembered but judged.
J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 best seller, Empire of the Sun, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir Miracles of Life was published in 2008. J. G. Ballard died in 2009.
Critic reviews
“A remarkable journey into the mind of a growing boy … horror and humanity are blended into a unique and unforgettable fiction” ( Sunday Times)
“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)
“A brilliant fusion of history, autobiography and imaginative speculation. An incredible literary achievement and almost intolerably moving” (Anthony Burgess)
“An immensely powerful novel – in a class of its own for sheer imaginative force.” ( Daily Telegraph)
“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)
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What listeners say about Empire of the Sun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-09-20
Bloody but brilliant.
A coming of age story like no other - one of endurance and grisly adventure but also of innocence.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Neil P.
- 14-05-21
An experience of war seen through the eyes of a child
My favourite book narrated superbly by Steven Pacey. It’s so descriptive that you could believe you were there
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- LC
- 05-09-18
Vivid and horrific
Gives a convincing and horrific experience of trying to survive in wartime Shanghai through the Japanese occupation, surrounded by death and starvation.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Rose
- 21-03-16
mind numbing
I will admit that I am not new to the works of this author and until now I've kind of liked what I've read most of the time. Cocaine Nights would be the exception since it is predictable and not of Ballard's usual high class of writing. However I'm not writing about that I'm writing about Empire of the Sun. As a movie the experience would be instantly forgettable I'd think. As a book it is mind numbing and full of introspection. The reading is juvenile and the character is irritating. I know it's a child looking for his parents but even he must realize it's a pretty hopeless task and tends to point to the fact that he'll find them in the end and it'll be jsut anotehr sentimental reunion love story. As you can tell i haven't finished it yet. If however he's not reunited well it's not to be wondered at.
There are some redeeming factors about it though. The introspection of the boy alone in a hostile environment and his adventures are interesting to read. His experiences as a boy of eleven are very poignant. it would appeal to those who lived through it and were children and it will no doubt appeal to anyone wanting to read about how iut was under Japanese rule for children. Otherwise if you're looking for high drama and edge of the seat adventure this is not for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- michael126
- 08-04-21
Standing the test of time
If you've seen the film you must read the book. They are similar but different. The film's storyline is much simpler - it's the way of most film adaptations. The book gets you inside Jim's mind which the film largely cannot. It also paints the pungent smells of Jim's experience on which the film is largely silent. Jim's views on the English, the Chinese and the Japanese are unvarnished. He takes no prisoners. Some might now see Jim's assessments as impolitic but they reflect perfectly the honest views of a young 1940s teenager and are immensely valuable as a historical record.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M J Clasen
- 27-09-20
A wonderful book beautifully read
A child's view of war is so different, difficult to hear but as relevant today as in the period in which it was set. Highly recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr. D. Reeves
- 16-04-20
Amazing
I read this a long time ago and remember enjoying it very much. The audio book version was fantastic and choice of narrator worked very well, just the right balance between innocence and worldliness. This book doesn’t pull punches and takes you on a long journey from upper middle class heaven down through the pits of hell in the prisoner of war camps and on to new post war world.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sigrin
- 04-05-17
Japanese prisoner of war through a child's eyes
I have not seen the film, but highly recommend the book/ audible.
WW2 books usually centre around Europe and we can often forget about VJ Day and what surrounded and lead to it.
The book is a grim, no messing tale of young Jim and his parents living in Shangai prior to the war breaking out. The outbreak of war and his subsequent internment in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. It focuses on his time there, the horrors of daily life and also the small things that kept them going. With VJ Day sees Jim returning to shanghai, reuniting with his parents.
The last three hours are very sad and graphic in Jims dwindling mental state but intrinsic to this great story.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- B. A. Harding
- 21-09-20
A great story.. but too long and in need of a good edit.
Another name should be the 9 lives of J G Ballard. As our hero escapes death so many times..
The author had some important insight about the history of 20th century China..and it is his story , he was a boy in camp.. but it repeated
itself again and again.. that was a great pity.. the film is better thank the book.
I do have a personal interest.. my grandmother and aunt were in a camp in northern Shanghai for almost 4 years..while my father was in camp in Hong Kong.. and many of the comments about the conditions were the same as Ballard. The Japanese did not punish the Jews.. and Ballard does say that the Japanese stopped a group of nazis enter the Jewish quarter to bet them up.. my father said that in camp that they asked for a room for Friday night prayers.. and were given a room for Friday night. Jim like my father received kindness from the Japanese guards..
So these remarkable actions were real, that the average Japanese soldier was a family man and a human man. Shanghai was a terrible city.. as a child I would hear stories of Shanghai.. and Ballard certainly says this.. The film did the editing.. although the film did change things a bit .. a very interesting book that gives another view point.. and the suffering of the Chinese people.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Barry M.
- 13-09-21
A visceral sense of wartime Shanghai
Do not judge it by the Spielberg film, this so much better, he captures the brutality with a dispassionate eye.
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