Black Rain

The book centers around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell in consequence of the bombing of Hiroshima. Ibuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the atomic holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering unleashed by the nuclear blast. The life of Yasuka, on whom the black rain fell, is charged forever by periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected. 300p.