Folio Society Published Works Number 3394
Ballard, J G - Empire of the Sun
We buy and sell items like these, so please contact us if you have similar items for sale, and we will make you an offer if we are interested.
To check if we have this item, or similar items, in stock, please click the Check Stock link below. Alternatively, use the links on the left to search our large online database of items for sale, or to visit the rest of the site.
Check Stock
Ballard, J G - Empire of the Sun (Published in by The Folio Society in 2017. Illustrated by Tim Laing. Introduced by William Boyd. The harrowing story of a British boy's four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War, based on the author's own wartime experiences. The first illustrated edition, featuring images by award-winning artist Tim Laing. In the author's own words, Empire of the Sun 'draws on my experiences in Shanghai … and in Lunghua CAC [Civilian Assembly Centre] where I was interned from 1942–5'. The protagonist, Jim, takes Ballard's first name and, like the author, is born in Shanghai to British parents. Aged only 11 when he is separated from his family during the Japanese takeover, he cycles through the Shanghai streets in search of his parents, scavenging food and sleeping in the beds of vanished families. While roaming the creeks and waste tips of Nantao, he finds a dubious guardian in Basie, a shrewd American hustler but, convinced that his parents are in a prison camp, his only hope lies in surrender to the Japanese, and four brutal years in a civilian internment camp. Three-quarter bound in cloth with a printed Modigliani paper front board blocked. Set in Minion with Roos Initials display. 304 pages. Frontispiece and 8 integrated black & white illustrations. 1 map. Plain slipcase. 9.5" x 6.25". )
