One fourteenth of an elephant

the long version

This is a bright and moving memoir from a time of intense torment for the author, as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. Starvation and back breaking labour in sweltering heat carried the author to a very low ebb brilliantly described. He came back through determination and an almost incredible sympathy for his brother. Bright sparks of humanity occur through the intervention of an heroic Australian medic, from fellow prisoners and occasionally from a Japanese guard. Thank God, or whatever you believe in, for this proof that brutality cannot crush the human spirit.