Author:Biyi Bandele
A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease.
Burma Boy is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.
As humane, ridiculous and moving as Waugh's novels of the world at war
—— Ronan BennettA gripping narrative - by turns pathetic, comic and exciting
—— Sunday TimesFascinating...unusual...invigorating...and very funny
—— ObserverA superb Second World War adventure... tender and funny
—— The TimesVividly recreates the violence and drama of a forgotten war, describing the camaraderie between fighting men with humour and compassion
—— Maggie GeeA novel that resonates across the pages with the narrative mastery of the griot's voice
—— Wole SoyinkaA hauntingly beautiful elegy for those who killed and died in the service of a history that was not their own. Like Ha Jin's magisterial War Trash, Burma Boy wields the two greatest weapons in the novelist's arsenal - imagination and empathy - to shattering effect
—— James Schamus, producer Brokeback Mountain and The Ice StormOriginal ...often very funny. A magical book
—— Kevin MacDonald, Director: The Last King of ScotlandA riveting read, convincingly imagined and cinematically told. Bandele is a gifted storyteller
—— Linton Kwesi JohnsonA truly fantastic book. A caesarean cut through terrifying and hilarious history
—— Sven LindqvistIt is quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth... We are lucky to have this book
—— Anne Chisholm , Sunday TelegraphThe facts surrounding the discovery of this book are as remarkable as its contents are magnificent... A triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment
—— Sunday TimesDeftly translated by Sandra Smith, this is possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary, as hypnotic as Proust at the biscuit tin, as gruelling as Genet on the prowl. Irène Nemirovsky is, on this evidence, a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint
—— Evening StandardAn heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded
—— Anita Brookner , SpectatorRead this haunting novel, then read [Nemirovsky’s] letters in this edition to feel the full force of the work
—— Fiona Wilson , The TimesWhile marked by poppy wearing and memorial ceremonies, the First World War is also sustained through family history, handed down from one generation to the next. No book better articulates the impact of this narrative than Stephen Faulks’ Birdsong.
—— Lucy Middleton , Reader's DigestA truly amazing read
—— Gail Teasdale , 24housingI’d never read such descriptive literature, and couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about what I’d just read. His [Faulks] portrayal of terror on the battlefield is so powerful
—— Anna Redman , Good HousekeepingMy all-time favourite book
—— Kate Garraway , Good Housekeeping
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