Through the Jungle of Death: A Boy's Escape from Wartime Burma - Hardcover

Brookes, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471415693 ISBN 13: 9780471415695

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2001

Synopsis

A GRIPPING SURVIVOR STORY OF ONE FAMILY'S FLIGHT FROM BURMA DURING THE JAPANESE INVASION
""As uplifting a testimonial to human courage as any to emerge from World War II.""--Daily Mail (London)
""A tale of hair-raising adventure, survival, love and loss, shot through with rage, polemic, unlikely humour and a rare spiritual sensibility.""--Telegraph Magazine (London)
""Unique and heartfelt . . . a tale of human resilience and bravery in the most desperate circumstances.""--The Irish News
""Written with simplicity, understanding, and surprising good humour. It deserves to be read.""--The Times Educational Supplement (London)

About this title

About the Author

STEPHEN BROOKES was educated at La Martiniere College in Lucknow, India, and has taught in Malay, served as a soldier in the Indian army, and worked in the oil fields in Borneo. He now lives in Cambridgeshire, England.

From the Back Cover

A GRIPPING SURVIVOR STORY OF ONE FAMILY'S FLIGHT FROM BURMA DURING THE JAPANESE INVASION

""As uplifting a testimonial to human courage as any to emerge from World War II.""--Daily Mail (London)

""A tale of hair-raising adventure, survival, love and loss, shot through with rage, polemic, unlikely humour and a rare spiritual sensibility.""--Telegraph Magazine (London)

""Unique and heartfelt . . . a tale of human resilience and bravery in the most desperate circumstances.""--The Irish News

""Written with simplicity, understanding, and surprising good humour. It deserves to be read.""--The Times Educational Supplement (London)

From the Inside Flap

Fear had gripped me like a gigantic vice. . . . If a man as strong and dominant as my father could be struck down . . . then weaklings like Mum, Maisie, George and me stood no chance of getting to India. One by one, we too would be wrapped in a blanket and thrown into the jungle. Worse still, who would be the last one to go? . . . Would it be me?

In 1942, as war spread in the Far East and the British, Japanese, and Chinese fought ferocious battles on Burmese soil, an eleven-year-old Anglo-Burmese boy and his family found themselves trapped in the deadly path of advancing armies. Told through the eyes of that eleven-year-old boy, this is the compelling story of Stephen Brookes, who, along with hordes of terrified civilians, was forced to flee his home when the Japanese invaded.

Packing whatever they could carry on foot, young Brookes, his parents, and his siblings joined the exodus of thousands of refugees abandoned by the civil administration. Their only hope of survival was to try to escape through the dense jungles of Northern Burma that led to the Indian border. In this rare firsthand account, Brookes provides a riveting chronicle of that terrifying 3,000-mile journey—a journey that would last eight grueling months and partially destroy his family.

From their barefoot trek across mountain ridges where the family was ambushed by Chinese soldiers, through the sweltering jungle swamps of the Hukawng Valley—also known as the Valley of Death—at the height of the Monsoon, and into the final horror of an internment camp before reaching safety at Jhansi in India, Brookes shares an unforgettable story not only of bravery and survival, faith and fortitude, but of a boy becoming a man under impossible conditions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471415693
• ISBN 13: 9780471415695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256