Empire of the Sun , J. G. Ballard (Simon & Schuster, 1984). ***

This novel is a fictionalized autobiographical account of Ballard as a young English school boy, overly fascinated with airplanes, who was separated from his parents during the panic of the Japanese invasion of Shanghai during World War II. Most of the story tells how he coped with the hardships of internment in a concentration camp. Some of you may have seen Spielberg's film version of the book released in 1987. Incidentally, just a few years ago Ballard wrote a sequel, The Kindness of Women, (which doesn't match the quality of Empire...) which you might want to read if you're curious about whatever happened to this unusual kid after the war's end.