Reviews

War's end, August 1945, ironically complicates the lives of the Japanese soldiers, Dutch POWs, and Javanese forced laborers whose presence in a Sumatran village has touched and sometimes tainted its inhabitants. The Japanese camp commander, Lieutenant Ose, tortured as much by the wreck of his life as by defeat in war, awaits sympathetic healing in the arms of his native servant, Satiyah. Kliwon, a Javanese who must guard his earlier history, pursues Lena, daughter of village leader Haji Zen. Meanwhile, the Dutch, divided by the issues of leadership and escape, put themselves in harm's way at the moment of deliverance. Cultures may clash, but the humanity of all is evident in this thoughtful novel that shows us the horror of war from a new perspective. L. M. Lewis, Social Science Dept. , Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond