Secrets of our hearts

the long version

They were both outsiders in their way. But it was in the class-ridden community of a boys' public school in 1929 that the first spark of conflict was struck between Butler, the rich man's son, and Maitland, the gardener's boy. The 'Jumbo' Oliphant, a witness to the confrontation, had no way of knowing the terrible conclusion to which it would lead. When Singapore falls to the Japanese in 1942, the paths of these three men cross again, in the notorious Changi internment camp, and the hatred between Butler and Maitland surfaces once more, transcending the brutalities of captivity to develop its own murderous momentum ...