Empire of the Sun

'Extraordinary' Angela Carter
'One of the great war novels of the 20th century' William Boyd
'A remarkable journey' Sunday Times

The heartrending story of a British boy's four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War.




Like everything else since the war, the sky was in a state of change



Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Trapped in a prison camp and separated from his parents, Jim is witness to the death, starvation and chaos of the Second World War. His story is a mesmerising vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.


Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and shortlisted for the Booker, Empire of the Sun is an astounding, hypnotically compelling novel by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered, but judged.


'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