Broken Jewel: A Novel [Hardcover]

David L Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2009

New York Times bestselling author David Robbins, “the Homer of World War II” (Kirkus Reviews), catapults readers into a daring wartime rescue in this unforgettable new novel

 

Locked in the notorious Los Baños Internment Camp southeast of Manila, Remy Tuck, his headstrong nineteen-year-old son Talbot, and their community of Allied internees battle starvation and sadistic punishments by the Imperial Japanese Army. Defying the guards at every turn, Tal watches beautiful Carmen through the window of her room above the camp, where she is trapped in her own prison, a sex slave for the Japanese army. Without speaking, they fall in love. As the tide of the war in the Pacific turns against their captors, the camp grows even more dangerous, and Remy and Tal enact a courageous plan to save their fellow prisoners and the woman Tal loves from certain execution.

 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Robbins's ninth novel, the best WWII Pacific campaign novel in a long time, tells the dramatic story of the 1945 rescue of 2,100 American and allied prisoners from the Los Baños camp near Manila. Middle-aged gambler Remy Tuck and his teenage son, Talbot, have been civilian prisoners since the Philippines fell to the Japanese in 1942. Packed into the miserable Los Baños, where the Japanese starve, beat, abuse and murder the prisoners, Remy and Talbot use their wits and courage to survive. Across the camp, Carmen is a young Filipina woman forced to be a sex slave for Japanese soldiers. She and Talbot forge a relationship via long-distance glances through barbed wire. Once the Americans invade the Philippines and plan a daring mission to rescue the prisoners from certain death, Remy, Talbot and Carmen risk their lives to aid the paratroopers coming to their rescue, though bad luck, homicidal guards and stray bullets nearly do them in. This is a terrific story of the triumph of the human spirit, loaded with suspense, historical accuracy and fast-paced action. (Nov.)
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Review

"Broken Jewel is an enormous accomplishment, a richly detailed page-turner and history conjured through vivid prose. Robbins brings to life the humanity of men valiantly fighting to keep it for themselves. If you wanted to know what your grandfather, uncle, or father went through in the war, what they felt, saw, and did, read Broken Jewel. It touches on the mythic." -- Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (November 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416590587
• ISBN-13: 978-1416590583
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,258,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David L. Robbins was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 10, 1954. He grew up in Sandston, a small town east of Richmond out by the airport. His father was among the first to sit behind the new radar screens in the air traffic control tower. Both his parents, Sam and Carol, were veterans of WWII. Sam saw action in the Pacific, especially at Pearl Harbor.

In 1976, David graduated from the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a B.A. in Theater and Speech. He didn't know what to do for a living, having little real theatrical talents, so he decided to attend what he calls the "great catch-basin of unfocused over-achievers": law school. He received his Juris Doctorate at William and Mary in 1980. Robbins practiced environmental law in Columbia, S.C. for a year to the day (his father demanded back the money for law school if David practiced less than one year - he quit two weeks before the anniversary but got Sam to agree that two weeks of accumulated vacation could be included) before turning his energy to a career as a freelance writer in 1981. He began writing fiction in 1990.

Robbins has published nine novels: Souls To Keep, a cosmic love story (published by HarperCollins in 1998); War Of The Rats, set during the battle of Stalingrad (published by Bantam in 1999; the basis for the movie Enemy At The Gates); The End of War, about the fall of Berlin at the end of WWII (Bantam in 2000); Scorched Earth, placed in the American South, about a church burning and contemporary racism (Bantam, 2002); Last Citadel, set during the great tank battle of Kursk on the Eastern Front of WWII (Bantam, 2003), Liberation Road, a tale of the battle for France in WWII told through the perspectives of two minorities in the U.S. Army, a black truck driver and a rabbi chaplain (Bantam, 2005) The Assassins Gallery, (Bantam, 2006,) an alternate history political thriller supposing the assassination of FDR in 1945, and The Betrayal Game, a sequel to The Assassins Gallery revolving around the events of the Bay Of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 and the CIA's many attempts to kill Fidel Castro. His latest novel, Broken Jewel (Simon & Schuster, 2009) is set in the Philippines in early 1945, at the Los Baños internment camp. The novel involves the rescue of 2100 Americans before their execution by the Japanese, and the story of a Filipina "comfort woman." Broken Jewel was described by Kirkus (starred review) as "...a remarkable story, brilliantly told."

The audio version of War Of The Rats was nominated for an Audie, as one of the top three unabridged novels of 2000. Likewise, the audio of Last Citadel was named one of Library Journal's top 3 recordings of 2005. His books have appeared on the NY Times Bestseller list, and been published in sixteen languages. For his wartime novels, David has been referred to by Kirkus as "the Homer of World War II."

Robbins resides in Richmond, Virginia. He is an accomplished guitarist, playing blues for years, but now he studies Latin classical. At six feet six inches tall, he stays active with his sailboat, shooting sporting clays, weightlifting, and traveling to research his novels. He is a founding co-chair of the James River Writers, a non-profit organization in his hometown of Richmond that helps aspiring writers and students work and learn together as a writing community. He has taught at Virginia Commonwealth, and as writer-in-residence at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. Currently, he is the chairman and co-founder of the non-profit Podium Foundation, an organization which has created a literary journal, arts website, and several literacy programs for Richmond Public High School students (PodiumFoundation.com). His website address is Davidlrobbins.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These were the times which tried our souls, January 8, 2010

By 

Patricia H. Parker "Bookwoman" (Springfield, Massachusetts United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broken Jewel: A Novel (Hardcover)

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There have been many books and films, as well as the wonderful television program on the rescue of the prisoners of war at Cabanatuan, covering the trials and suffering of those armed forces and civilians held by the Japanese Army, on the Philippine Islands during World War II. This is one more book on the subject, but I think this one deserves to be read. Mr. Robbins takes a slightly different tack and covers a subject which hasn't been reported on widely. Besides telling the story of the civilian internees, he shows a picture of the life of the "comfort women" who were put into service as sex slaves to the invading army.

The "glamorized" picture of the lives of these women as shown in past films was not the norm. Mr. Robbins gives us a look at the reality of the lives of these women and they deserve to have it told.

Besides describing this subject, Mr. Robbins has given us another exciting adventure in telling the story of the end of the camp at Los Banos. He tells of the hardship and suffering brought about by the combination of a weak commandant and an arrogant cruel Sargeant of the guards, who deals out ration cuts and punishments on whims. Mr. Robbins' scholarship and research are excellent. This is my first David Robbins' book but he reminds me, very much, of the work of the Shaaras and Robert Harris. He takes the factual history and winds it in with a fascinating, exciting story. Mr. Robbins even takes two or three of the actual people to create his characters. As a History major, one of the things I loved about this book was that there is a set of annotations at the end of the book which explains, chapter by chapter, how the real story rolled out and how the writer incorporated it into his story.

I am looking forward to reading more of Mr. Robbins' books, and I highly recommend that anyone interested in this time in our history or even someone who wants to read a really good adventure story, read this book as soon as possible.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broken Jewel Review, January 2, 2011

By 

Ken Semple - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broken Jewel: A Novel (Hardcover)

Broken Jewel by David Robins is another wonderful example of his thorough research and his ability to put together a story with very believable characters from a little known actual situation during the Second World War. As in his other novels he writes of little known happenings of that era and weaves an intricate tale showing the tenacity and ingenuity of the prisoners, the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers, and the efforts of the local underground at risk of death to aid those in the camp. The tense buildup of the intended slaughter of the prisoners by the Japanese guards under their maniacal commander, knowing American forces were moving towards them, is classic David Robbins. The love affair of the nineteen year old Tal and the Filipino girl held in bondage as a sex slave for the Japanese soldiers gives further dimension to the story. Although they never meet until near the end but only watch each other from afar makes the story even more interesting. Like his, End of the War, and War of the Rats novels, I found the book riveting, and look forward to his next effort.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Putting a human face to war..., June 29, 2010

By 

T. Hogeman - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Broken Jewel: A Novel (Hardcover)

As a fan of David L Robbins other work, Broken Jewel is a welcome addition to his collection. One of his strongest talents has always been putting a human face to war. The first DLR book I ever read, War of the Rats, was the first time I truly appreciated the scope and horror of World War Two's Eastern Front on a human scale, for both the Soviet defenders and the invading German troops. While he's good at writing action and throwing the reader into suspense and adventure, I've always most appreciated his ability to capture the human spirit in some of the most harrowing circumstances. History will give you the numbers: an estimated 50,000 to 300,000 women forced into prostitution by the Japanese, 500,000 to 1,000,000 Filipino civilians killed in the war, 8,146 Prisoners in the Los Banos Internment camp, but a novel like Broken Jewel will give you the names, faces, and lives behind the numbers.

Broken Jewel is more than just a war story. It's a love story, a coming of age story, a story of family, and an exploration of an issue that remains intensely important to this day; the Japanese use of comfort women. Even to this day, there are still protests and even riots against Japan over the controversy of Comfort Women. Carmen, a Filipina comfort woman, and one of the novel's main characters gives the reader the chance to see through the eyes of one such kidnapped young woman. However, DLR is careful to never let her become a victim, despite the cruelty and abuse she and her fellow comfort women endure. Reading Broken Jewel is a window into why such anger continues to this day, as DLR doesn't blink in the face of the atrocities committed by the Japanese against thousands of young women all across Asia.

However, that said, neither does he shy away from the human side of the Japanese. The stories of Japanese soldiers, knowing their side is on the verge of defeat, and worse, knowing they will be asked to kill and die for a war they've already lost, are told with heartbreaking clarity through their interactions with Carmen.

The book is thoroughly researched, complete with a set of annotated footnotes describing the actual events of the Los Banos internment camp and rescue raid. These footnotes provide another story equally as interesting as the novel itself, the historically recorded trials of the actual internees themselves. As someone interested in writing, I found these notes to be an intriguing insight into the writing process, seeing which pieces stayed the same and which pieces DLR tweaked for the novel.

Broken Jewel is an illuminating and intense portrayal of both an interesting historical moment, and of an issue that resounds to this day. Those looking for a simple quick-paced action adventure might find it a bit slow, but that's only because the author takes his time to explore his character's humanity.David L Robbins continues to put a human face to all sides of the war.