| Title | : | Bamboo Heart |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 354 |
| Publication | : | Published May 10, 2019 |
Bamboo Heart Reviews
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5 Words: Family, revenge, war, friendship, loyalty.
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This review first appeared on our blog, where we also talk to the publisher, founder of Monsoon Books, Philip Tatham:
http://www.tripfiction.com/monsoon-bo...
I was of the generation that grew up with the 1980s TV series Tenko, set in a women’s labour camp run by the Japanese. The female prisoners were all picked up after the fall of Singapore in 1942 and kept in terrible conditions, forgotten by the British War Office, and subjected to ordeals beyond the imagination.
For a later generation this trilogy of Southeast Asian World War II novels (the third due out 2017) will be an eye opening insight into the trials that previous generations endured on the Thai – Burma railway, otherwise known as the Death Railway, built by prisoners to move Japanese supplies into Burma to aid their war effort.
Set mainly in Thailand and Malaysia, it is the heart wrenching story of Tom, volunteering to join the defence lines in Malaysia, captured, and held prisoner. Before the war, he chose to leave the city in London and oversee a rubber plantation in Malaysia and life was pretty good – he embarked on an affair with a married woman, but soon found his heart captured by Joy, a young Eurasian woman. And it is his love for her that sustains him through terrible ordeals in the camp, his humanity nevertheless in tact even when it comes to facing his nemesis in the form of an english racketeer, on the make at the expense of the well-being of others captives.
Forward to London of the 1980s and his daughter Laura is tending her father, as he is ill. It is clear that he is suffering a condition called Bamboo Heart, the eponymous title of the book, physical after-effects of sustained malnutrition and starvation. She has never heard her father’s story, so determines to find out more by travelling to the Far East. She is in an on/off relationship with Luke, who, with one ill considered action too far prompts her – just like her father – to consider what she too must do in the face of immoral behaviour.
Setting is very strong and is redolent of the tropics. A great book to get a feel of footsteps past if you are visiting Malaysia.
This is an extremely readable and confidently written book and it is a shame I didn’t pick it up sooner. I think for me, the book has a jacket which just didn’t attract me, it seems dull and old fashioned rather than a modern book recreating the period. Of course, however, never judge a book by its cover (although I have said many times before that the cover is the first thing that catches a reader’s eye and therefore has a blink in which to do so!).
Highly recommended. Each book in the trilogy can be read as a standalone. -
I met Ann Bennett through the peer review site YouWriteOn and have watched her wonderful book grow through several drafts to become the beautifully written historical novel you can read today. Harrowing at times as it deals with the horrors of the Death Railway in Thailand during World War II, Bamboo Heart's main theme is the human spirit and how the characters fight to survive against all odds. It's a story that needed to be told. Tom is a fantastic protagonist and Ann Bennett really brings him to life in the sections that deal with the past. His daughter, Laura, grows as she learns about her father's experiences and seeks her own path. A truly riveting read and I'm looking forward to more novels from Ann Bennett.
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This book was excellent and well written. Ann Bennett transported you to the places she wrote about you both the beautiful and the awful
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Excellent
By now, most of us know of the bridge on the River Kwai, or seen the movie "Unbroken". This little gem was written as a sort of mystery, flashing back and forth between WWII and the daughter's life in the 80's. It involves her father's life during WWII, as well as the daughter's life at age 26. You will find this just as harrowing and just as evil as all Japanese prison camps were, but unusual with the daughter following his mystery with her own set of 80's problems. I loved this book! Well done! -
A daughter searches for the truth about her father's wartime experiences. Like many POW's he has kept his memories hidden and refused to talk about them.
Laura travels to Thailand and Malaya to try to uncover just what her father went through as a prisoner of the Japanese working on the infamous Thailand to Burma railway.
I found the historical references interesting, fiction can often make reading about the horrors of war slightly easier. -
While the substance of Bennett's work is moving, its execution is choppy and distracting. There doesn't appear to be any reason to repeatedly jump backwards and forwards in time and change points of view nearly every chapter. That said, the work certainly does carry emotional weight, drawing the reader in to a complex father-daughter relationship complicated by distance, war, and too little time.
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A brilliant read!
The tragedy at the heart of this book is the incredible hardship the soldiers faced under the indescribable cruelty of the Japanese.
Ann's research and knowledge of the subject is 100% which must have been ongoing for a long time.
Tom's daughter Laura is relentless in her quest to find the truth behind her father's suffering.
Her boyfriend drove me crazy I felt like shouting at my Kindle "dump him, he's hopeless " but I will say no more.
I've read a few of Ann's books but will find more as they are so heart wrenching amid true to life situations .
Thankyou. -
Good
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Engrossing and well crafted. Will read more by this author
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Ann Bennett has written many books that are better than this one. I never felt vested in the characters lives.
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Loved it. Amazing resilient human story.
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Hello everyone and welcome to a very special three days on my blog. For the next three days, including today, I will be talking about a wonderful new trilogy that I've just completed - The Bamboo Trilogy by Ann Bennett. I shall be reviewing the first book today, Bamboo Heart then the second, Bamboo Island tomorrow and finally the third, Bamboo Road as part of a blog tour celebrating the final book in the series and the trilogy as a whole. The books can be read in any order as they are all stand-alone stories although they do make references to things that have already happened in the previous books (in the case of the second and third novels).
Faye Rogers, who works as a freelance PR contacted me and asked me to be a part of this blog tour and when I read the synopsis of the books, I immediately accepted. A huge thank you to her and also to Monsoon Books for sending me a copy of the trilogy in exchange for an honest review. I'm a great lover of historical fiction and one of the periods of interest for me is the Second World War. As it is also set mainly in Southeast Asia, a region I find fascinating, that was the icing on the cake for me. What I wasn't expecting is how emotionally invested I became in the stories. Bamboo Heart is the story of Laura Ellis in London, 1986 whom after the tragic death of her father, becomes desperate to find out more about his life during the Second World War. What happened to her father in the forties in Thailand and Malaysia is difficult for her father to talk about, the horrific experiences that he went through are nothing short of devastating and he deliberately shielded his daughter from the heart-break of his story.
After undergoing a break up of her own and still grieving for the loss of her father, Laura decides to journey to Thailand and Malaysia so that she can understand some of what her father went through. The story takes us through Laura's hunt for that terrible knowledge and back in time to the 1940's when her father, Tom Ellis is a prisoner of war of the Japanese, helping to build a railway from Thailand to Burma. The conditions he works in are brutal and almost indescribable but the author does not shy away from the honesty of how the prisoners were treated. They were beaten on a daily basis, starved, punished for the slightest infraction and before long, were mere skeletons, too weak to undergo the hard labour that was expected of them but terrified of repercussions if they didn't. Laura goes through an emotional journey of her own as she realises what her father suffered and we learn more about Tom's life both during this horrific time and when he first came to the East and fell in love with a local woman.
I found this novel to be a fascinating read, especially I have to say Tom's story and his experiences whilst building the railway as a prisoner of war. I was slightly less invested in Laura's story but I enjoyed how the author linked the two together. I must also mention that the author began writing this story whilst carrying out research into her own father's involvement in the very same railway so I believe this makes the story all the more poignant, being based on real life anecdotes/experiences. It made me think a lot, mainly about the brutality of war but there was also a somewhat hopeful message within - how the soldiers banded together building strong friendships and being incredibly brave in the face of such torture was amazing to read about. I'm looking forward to reading another story based around the same time period but involving different characters in the next novel, Bamboo Island which I'm certain will be just as gut-wrenching but informative as this one.
If you like the sound of Bamboo Heart you can buy it here:
Amazon Link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/9...
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at
http://www.bibliobeth.com -
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my thoughts.
Despite being a fan of historical fiction, I can't say that I'm big on anything to do with the World Wars. Perhaps due to studying them for years at GCSE and A-Level, I just don't reach for fiction that surrounds them. That changed, however, when I learnt about the Bamboo trilogy which centres around WWII Asia - something I know nothing about thanks to school curriculum focusing solely on Britain.
Straight away when I picked this up my favourite parts were those set in 1943 following Tom in the POW camp. Needless to say I was surprised, but they were so interesting and informative without being boring or too horrific. Yes, things were described in detail and we got quite a good idea of the tortures those poor men had to suffer, but I personally found it to be more educational than off-putting. It was honest, but it wasn't overly graphic.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Laura's chapters in the first third of the book. I found her to be quite weak willed and actually rather dumb and insensitive when it came to her dad's past. Of course he wouldn't want to relive those moments so why on Earth would she think to pressure him?! And after a hospitalisation no less! I also found ti really hard to believe that - as a grown woman with a father who was in the war - she had no idea about what went on in the POW camps. Luke was by far the worst character in these chapters (and the book as a whole). He was manipulative and a complete asshole to Laura and what she was going through.
Thankfully, when you hit the 200s things take a turn as Laura travels to Thailand. The scenes from the 40s are still just as good, but those in the 80s start picking up. Laura comes to her senses regarding Luke and also starts unravelling the mystery of her dad's past.
I also lent this to my nan - who was born in 1939, the daughter of someone who served in the war and spent time as a prisoner, and also an avid history fan. Needless to say she knows some stuff about WWII, so it was interesting to hear her thoughts seeing as they come from such a different perspective to mine. She said that she found this to be difficult to read at times because it hit so close to home, but that Bennett knows how to tell a story and keep you interested, and for the most part I agree with her.
Given it's subject matter this is a really easy read that is, dare I say it, fun. It's quick to get through and doesn't require much prior knowledge of World War II to understand or enjoy. It will grip you from the first page and you'll want to know all about Tom, Laura, and their respective experiences in Thailand. -
A HEART-WRENCHING STORY OF LOVE AND SURVIVAL .A SOLDIER’S STRENGTH IN THE BLEAKEST OF TIMES AND A DAUGHTER’S JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY ABOUT HER FATHER AND HERSELF.Thailand, 1943: Thomas Ellis, captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore, is a prisoner-of-war on the Death Railway. In stifling heat he endures endless days of clearing jungle, breaking stone and lugging wood. He must stay alive, although he is struck down by disease and tortured by Japanese guards, and he must stay strong, although he is starving and exhausted. For Tom has made himself a promise: to return home. Not to the grey streets of London, where he once lived, but to Penang, where he found paradise and love.London, 1986: Laura Ellis, a successful City lawyer, turns her back on her yuppie existence and travels to Southeast Asia. In Thailand and Malaysia she retraces her father’s past and discovers the truth he has refused to tell her. And in the place where her father once suffered and survived, she will finally find out how he got his Bamboo Heart.The Straits Settlements Volunteer Force (SSVF) was a military reserve force in the Straits Settlements, while they were under British rule. While the majority of the personnel were from Singapore, some lived in other parts of the Settlements, including Penang, Province Wellesley, Malacca and Labuan.They fought in the Battle of Singapore,and most were captured on 15 February 1942 when their positions were overrun.The Thai-Burma Railway,or Death Railway,is a 415 KM railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built by the Japanese Empire from 1940–1944 to supply troops and weapons in the Burma Campaign.This railway completed the rail link between Bangkok and Rangoon.Japanese soldiers, including Koreans, were employed on the railway as engineers, guards, and supervisors of the POW and romusha labourers.Japanese soldiers were cruel and indifferent to the fate of Allied POWs and the Asian rōmusha.Cruelty could take different forms, from extreme violence and torture to minor acts of physical punishment, humiliation, and neglect.George Town is the capital of the Malaysian island of Penang.
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Bamboo Heart is one of the books in the Bamboo Trilogy written by Ann Bennett, publisher Monsoon Books. The books can be read in any order however, I chose to read Bamboo Heart first and I was soon captivated by this time slip historical fiction novel with the idea of the story coming to Ann Bennett whilst she was researching her father’s history who had been a POW on the Thailand-Burma Railway.
A fascinating, insightful story travelling back to 1938 to a young man starting out in the working world. His career started out in the legal field and returned back to law many years later but what happened in between these years will stay with this young man forever. A time during a pivotal moment in history. A time that was kept hidden to the rest of the world as thousands of men were tortured and even killed in POW camps in Burma. This was a truly terrifying time that was equally shocking, distressing and so traumatising.
Bamboo Heart’s time slip story journeys from London 1986 with Laura Ellis, a young career girl in the law industry taking time out to trace her father’s history. We then travel back to 1943 to when Thomas Ellis was captured by the Japanese and held captive in a POW camp and forced to work on The Death Railway.
The author, Ann Bennett, wrote with such passion and honesty. She left no scene without telling the shocking truth of a young man’s struggle to survive in the most terrifying of ordeals. The story sounds quite oppressive but it wasn’t as you were dealing with real people’s emotions and even during times of war love always found a way to bring sunshine and hope to your days.
A truly compelling historical time slip work of fiction that will stay with me for a long time 5/5* -
Bamboo Heart has been waiting on my Kindle for a little while. I loved Bamboo Island and I found Bamboo Road really moving but I was worried that this, the first book of the Bamboo Trilogy might be very upsetting. Indeed, the Prologue takes us straight to a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp in 1943, where Tom Ellis has been incarcerated in a narrow individual earth lock-up. He keeps his spirits up by thinking of the girl he left in Penang.
The book moves on to London in 1986 where Laura Ellis, Tom’s daughter returns from Paris to see her father, who is sick. A successful city lawyer, she is dissatisfied with her life and worried about the actions of her boyfriend, Luke. Finding a photo of a young woman with oriental features, named Joy de Souza, Laura decides to travel to Thailand to learn more about her father’s wartime experiences and then on to Penang where he may have met Joy.
The book takes us back to pre-war London where Tom, also unhappy with his life, had decided to travel out east to manage workers on a rubber plantation. He becomes part of the expat community, but he also meets a local teacher who becomes very important to him. His easy-going life is suddenly changed by the approach of the Japanese, when he must become a soldier, but he becomes a captive in Singapore and is taken to the Death Railway.
The book reveals the suffering of so many soldiers and the repercussions in their lives post war. Laura’s experiences in Thailand and Penang are also life-changing but in a positive way. This is a challenging but fascinating story of the tragedy of war but hope for the future. -
These books can be read in any order as they do not follow a narrative one after the other and I have currently only had the opportunity to finish ‘Bamboo Heart’. However, based upon what I have read in this first book, I will certainly be picking up the next two (so keep your eyes peeled for those reviews!)
These books are not the kind that I would usually pick up in a bookshop, however, I am very grateful that I was sent them as I found it very difficult to put ‘Bamboo Heart’ down. It is an area of history that I know close to nothing about, which made it fascinating to learn about. It is also an incredibly moving and powerful book as this is an area of history that has not been covered by lots of authors in many different ways, and it is horrific yet important to read about what happened to the men who took part in building the railway.
I found the movement between the pas, with Tom working on the railway and his daughter Laura looking for information about what happened to him in the 80s the perfect set up for this book. It allowed some breathing space from Tom’s past and a chance to recover from these very emotionally charged sections of the book.
Even if historical fiction is not usually your type of book, I would highly recommend this series, it is very easy to read, despite the emotional storyline. It unrolls gently whilst also being packed full of information, It shows that it has been well researched and the author clearly knows exactly what she is writing about, something very important within this genre.
Originally posted at:
https://thebookishfairyblog.wordpress... -
Excellent book!
This story about a young English woman whose father is a WWII POW and war veteran is outstanding! She doesn't know anything about his wartime experiences and, after coming home to care for him after his accident, she begins to question her own stale life and wants to know more about her aging father 's past.
The story is told in flashbacks and is done in a very descriptive way giving you the full force of what is was like in Singapore and Thailand both post-war era and during Tom's imprisonment in a Japanese prison camp. There is much in-depth information about the day to day horrific events of camp life and was a difficult read. It's certainly a wake-up call to how inhumane war is.
The author did a great deal of research here and the plot is very well constructed. I found it one book I couldn't put down. The quest of this daughter and her becoming aware of her father's unbelievable suffering is well-developed and understandable as we do tend to not thinking our parents as interesting as they often are. Everyone has a past. We often fail to ask parents to explain or expound on what may be extremely important.
I highly recommend to readers of historical fiction. This is the second book I've read by this author and I find I like her very much! -
Even though it was only a story, reading up on the lives of the prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese still remains a painful experience, even for me. Even after many centuries have passed. The torture that these prisoners endured is not something easily forgotten, and yet, in modern times, no one remembers the ill-begotten past during the Second World War. 'Bamboo Heart' was written by Ann Bennett whose father was a real-life Japanese prisoner in World War II, which prompted her to write this book (Volume One, apparently, and there are two more volumes to this trilogy which I have yet to find) on his excruciating life in a Japanese prisoner camp, and how she tried to discover the horrifying truths of the life he once had before she was born.
I was forced to take a break from reading the book many times over, because of the tricks that my mind would play on me every night. Part fiction, part biography, although the horrors of war have long passed us, each vivid description of the characters' suffering, pain and torture still hits me like a tennis ball. But I truly enjoyed the book, nonetheless, and honestly, I still have a few more books on historical wars of the past left to read. I'm just surprised that I managed to finish the book within the month of August. -
I was drawn to Bamboo Heart because my father used to watch Bridge on the River Kwai everyday. The film was shot in Sri Lanka, where I live. Thus, I was fairly confident I would like the subject matter of the book, but what I found most impressive was how easily it read. It flowed so smoothly that I was able to focus on the story, which was fantastic. I loved discovering the history of the Death Railway, and found some of the scenes suitably disturbing. The story was wonderfully researched and from what I can tell, the author had personal family experience to inspire her. Great characters, excellent pace, outstanding delivery. Highly recommended.
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incredible!
I was mesmerized by this book and the horrific accounts of Laura’s father Tom’s experience as a Japanese prisoner of war in Malaysia during WWII. I knew the treatment had been brutal but had no idea until I read these historic novels. The author Ann Bennett captures these experiences with such clarity as her characters journey to discover their parents’ hidden past. She brings alive their history with vivid descriptions of the horrible prison camps contrasted with the colonial splendor of the expats who lived there before the war. Her words conjured clear pictures in my mind of the characters’ lives. An incredible read! -
A very informative and thought-provoking tale of a man taken as a prisoner of war during WWII. Forced to build the Thai-Burma railway (Bridge over the Kwai), this story jumps from more modern times (following his daughter on her quest to discover her dad's war horrors) and Tom's time as a POW. The cruel Japanese and Korean soldiers could not break him, but he would endure many cruelties beyond those survived during incarceration. Great read.
