The Railway Man

The Railway Man

by EricLomax (Author)

Synopsis

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences. Almost 50 years after the war, however, his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpreter, was still alive - their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 06 Jun 1996

ISBN 10: 0099582317
ISBN 13: 9780099582311
Book Overview: Highly-anticipated film starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Irvine (Warhorse) released January 2014
Prizes: Winner of Joe Ackerley Prize 1996 and J.R. Ackerley Prize 1996 and NCR Book Award 1996 and AT & T Non-Fiction Award 1996 and Esquire/Apple/Waterstone Non-Fiction Award 1995. Shortlisted for McVities Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year 1995.

Media Reviews
What a great book. What a great man -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail *
Forget the grueling films, just read the brilliant books * Independent *
This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography -- Ian Jack * Guardian *
When I turned to the book, the complexity of Lomax's emotions came alive and burned off the page * Independent *
Of all the billions of words that have been written about the Second World War, with the exception of Churchill's Nobel Prize winning history, it is not an exaggeration to say there is no account of it more worth reading that this. Wistfully romantic, historically important, startling, horrifying and ultimately electrifyingly uplifting, The Railway Man is as indispensable as any book can be. -- Tom Peck * Independent *
Author Bio
Eric Lomax was born in 1919. During the Second World War he was captured and tortured by the Japanese Army and forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam railway. He met and forgave his torturer in 1995. Eric Lomax died in October 2012.