Tree Of Heaven. Paperback - 1995

New York, NY Soho Press, 1995. Paperback First Edition Thus [1995]; unstated. Near Fine in Wraps: shows only the most minute indications of use: just a hint of shelf-soiling. Binding shows barely discernible lean, but remains perfectly secure; else flawless; text clean. Appears unread. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 212pp. First Edition Thus [1995]; unstated. Trade Edition [priced at $12.00 at the upper rear panel]. Not an ARC or Prepublication issue. Trade Paperback. Set against the violence of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s, a love story tells of a Chinese woman who becomes the servant of a Japanese officer after he rescues her, and the strange intimacy that develops between them. This book is an extraordinary reading experience. During the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930's, there were examples of the most extreme barbarity by Japanese soldiers, comparable to the inhumanity practiced against Jews in the Holocaust. This book is set during that period and describes in novel form a relationship that develops between a Japanese soldier and a Chinese woman whom he rescues. I have rarely read a book that creates such a complex relationship between two people. The plot could so easily have become a melodrama about war, subservience, man and woman. Instead it felt like real lives being lived - so much ambiguity, so many things unresolved. Both the captor and the captive are strong and weak in surprising ways, experience fear and ultimately a kind of love, remember their families with deep and often conflicting emotions, feel so damaged by the horrors around them that they have trouble understanding who they are. The writing is exquisite, much of the description in simple declarative sentences that give every physical detail, every thought and emotion, tremendous immediacy.