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A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific—not two—and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this terrifying new device.
War has taken everything from physicist Keizo Kan. His young daughter was killed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid, and now his Japanese American wife, Noriko, has been imprisoned by the brutal Thought Police. An American bomber, downed over Japan on the first day of August 1945, offers the scientist a surprising chance at salvation. The Imperial Army dispatches him to examine an unusual device recovered from the plane's wreckage—a bomb containing uranium—and tells him that if he can unlock its mysteries, his wife will be released.
Working in secrecy under crushing pressure, Kan begins to disassemble the bomb and study its components. One of his assistants falls ill after mishandling the uranium, but his alarming deterioration, and Kan's own symptoms, are ignored by the commanding officer demanding results. Desperate to stave off Japan's surrender to the Allies, the army will stop at nothing to harness the weapon's unimaginable power. They order Kan to prepare the bomb for manual detonation over a target—a suicide mission that will strike a devastating blow against the Americans. Kan is soon confronted with a series of agonizing decisions that will test his courage, his loyalty, and his very humanity.
An extraordinary debut novel that is the result of twenty-seven years of work by its author, Daikon is a gripping and powerfully moving saga that calls to mind such classics as Cold Mountain and From Here to Eternity. It is set amid the chaos and despair of the world's third largest city lying in ruins, its population starving and its leadership under escalating assault from without and within. Here is a haunting epic of love, survival, and impossible choices that introduces a singular new voice on the literary landscape.
"An engrossing and thought-provoking novel...The plot feels entirely plausible, and none of the characters fit any obvious stereotypes...The author's research is impressive as he describes how the bomb is designed to work, the tensions within the Japanese power structure, and details of Japanese culture."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Thrilling...Builds to a pulse-pounding climax. The result is the most imaginative take on Hiroshima since Edwin Corley's The Jesus Factor." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Daikon is a gripping and fascinating work of historical fiction that's so convincing I felt like I'd stumbled onto an extraordinary World War II documentary with indelible characters and haunting footage from a vantage I'd never imagined. Daikon will sweep you away." —Jess Walter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
"Daikon is an exhilarating tale set amid the extraordinary devastation and despair of Japan's last days in World War II. Carefully researched, thoroughly convincing, and utterly compelling. I loved this book, and you will love it too." —Arthur Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Memoirs of a Geisha
This information about Daikon was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Samuel Hawley was born and raised in South Korea, the son of Canadian missionaries, and taught English in Korea and Japan for nearly two decades. He is the author of the nonfiction book The Imjin War, the most comprehensive account in English of Japan's 16th-century invasion of Korea and attempted conquest of China. He currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey. Daikon is his debut novel.
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