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The Railway Man [Paperback]

Eric Lomax (Author)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (729 customer reviews)

#1 Best Seller in History of Japan

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Book Description

Release Date: 2 Jan 2014

During the Second World War Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.

Left emotionally scarred and unable to form normal relationships, Lomax suffered for years until, with the help of his wife, Patti Lomax, and of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came terms with what happened. Fifty years after the terrible events, he was able to meet one of his tormentors.

The Railway Man is a story of innocence betrayed, and of survival and courage in the face of horror.

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During the Second World War Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.

The Railway Man is a story of innocence betrayed, and of survival and courage in the face of horror.

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Product details

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage (2 Jan 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0099583844
ISBN-13: 978-0099583844
Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (729 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > East Asia > Japan
- #2 in Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Japan
- #2 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Japan

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Product Description

Review

"What a great book. What a great man" (Harry Ritchie Daily Mail)

"Forget the grueling films, just read the brilliant books" (Independent)

"This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography" (Ian Jack Guardian)

"When I turned to the book, the complexity of Lomax's emotions came alive and burned off the page" (Independent)

"Of all the billions of words that have been written about the Second World War, with the exception of Churchill's Nobel Prize winning history, it is not an exaggeration to say there is no account of it more worth reading that this. Wistfully romantic, historically important, startling, horrifying and ultimately electrifyingly uplifting, The Railway Man is as indispensable as any book can be." (Tom Peck Independent)

Book Description

The number one bestseller behind the major film starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Irvine

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars

4.7 out of 5 stars

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

155 of 160 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing though ultimately uplifting account. 21 April 2004

By A. B. Pearl

Format:Paperback

This account of the author's experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war is, as you'd expect, a fairly harrowing one. But what lifts this remarkable tale is the book's humanity and compassion, and the tenderness of its narrative.
Whether Eric Lomax is re-living his childhood fascination with steam locomotives and trams, or describing the horrendous, inhuman acts of torture, the prose are consistently imbued with an almost poetic and innocent sense of wonder.
The details, observations and character sketches are authentically andvividly drawn. But it is the final passages of this book which document the author's determination to come face to face with one of his torturers, that make this extaordinary book so moving, compelling and ultimately uplifting.
Alex Pearl, author of 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds'

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89 of 93 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant story of courage and reconciliation 1 Jun 2005

By Timothy De Ferrars

Format:Paperback

Eric Lomax, like many young men of his generation, had a love for steam railways that bordered on an obsession. It was ironic then that he ended up as a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma Railroad, enduring torture and experiencing dreadful war crimes perpetrated against Allied prisoners.
This poignant book plays with the reader's emotions, first stoking up outrage at the appalling treatment meted out to this gentle man by his Japanese captors, then unexpectedly flipping its perpective to deliver a brilliant and unexpected climax.
The result is a literary gem, but it is Lomax's honesty rather than his cleverness as a writer that ensures that this book succeeds. I recommend it strongly.

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62 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful book 14 Dec 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I can't recommend this book too highly. Probably the best book I've ever read about the Second World War and mans inhumanity to man. Yet it still leaves you with a belief in mans essential goodness. Buy it.

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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING! 31 Jan 2008

By Arnaud033

Format:Paperback

I have never read a book so fast in all my life! A real 'page-turner', a riveting story. Its incredible that anyone could survive the experiences described in this book. I think that this book is crying out to be made into a film. It has everything that would make a truly great film :- a time of turmoil, an exotic location, a mild-mannered character drawn into a horrifying set of circumstances and surviving against staggering odds, humanity displayed at its best and at its worst, the backdrop of a world war, and ultimate reconciliation and forgiveness - the solution of an inner torment that could be solved in no other way.

I hope to see this on the big-screen one day.

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72 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and impressive 2 Aug 2010

By A. Whitehead TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE

Format:Paperback

In February 1942, the city of Singapore, defended by 80,000 British and Commonwealth troops, surrenders to the Japanese. The loss of Singapore, coupled with the preceding loss of the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales, is described by Churchill as the darkest British moments of the Second World War, whilst the capitulation of Singapore becomes the British Army's greatest defeat.

Amongst the tens of thousands of British soldiers rounded up and taken into captivity is Lt. Eric Lomax, a Royal Signals officer. Initially, the vast mass of British POWs hugely outnumbers their Japanese captors, leading to a relaxed atmosphere where the British prisoners mostly police themselves. Overconfident, many of the British prisoners began building home-made radios to keep a closer eye on the course of the war. However, as time passes the POWs begin to be dispersed, many being sent to be worked to death on the River Kwae railway as it slowly makes its way across Thailand and into Burma. In these smaller camps, much more aggressively policed by Japanese guards, the prisoners find their confidence and expectation of good treatment rapidly disabused. Lomax's involvement in the construction of clandestine radios leads him to being imprisoned, humiliated, tortured and condemned to a number of horrific prisons in and around Bangkok.

Eventually the war ends and Lomax returns home, but finds that his torture continues. His experiences lead to the breakdown of his first marriage, an estrangement from his father and decades of nightmares and broken sleep patterns. Only in the early 1990s does Lomax finally receive the counselling and psychiatric help he has needed, a process which eventually leads him back to Thailand and a meeting with one of his Japanese tormentors, an interpreter who rejected his nation's barbarous methods of torture and militarism and has spent the decades since working to ensure that the Japanese do not forget what they did in the war. In this meeting Lomax eventually finds a kind of peace, fifty years after the war ends.

The Railway Man is a memoir of one man's experiences in the Second World War. It opens with a summary of Lomax's childhood and background, his experiences as a railway and engineering enthusiast, his decision to enlist before WWII even starts and his eventual involvement in the debacle of Singapore's fall (the city's monstrous defences were oriented seaward, allowing the Japanese to simply walk in from the rear and take it almost completely unopposed). This is followed by the largest part of the book, as Lomax recalls his experiences in various POW camps and later prisons, in which he recounts his treatment at the hands of the Japanese. These sections are definitely not for those with weak stomachs. The cruelty of the Japanese to those who surrendered to them is well-documented, but even so the sheer, inhuman horror they inflicted on Lomax is shocking. However, even more startling is the lack of counselling or treatment Lomax received upon his eventual release, and the mild mistreatment inflicted on the former POWs by their liberators (such as former POWs, in many cases malnourished and weakened by four years of captivity, being expected to do the work of fully-healthy, fresh recruits on the return voyage to Britain).

The book ends with Lomax's experiences as a much older man, meeting one of his former tormentors face-to-face in Thailand, revisiting his old prison camp and then visiting Japan. This section of the book is the most powerful, as Lomax's utter hatred and loathing of the Japanese comes through the text vividly. He has no interest in forgiveness or reconciliation until he meets his former adversary and discovers the extreme lengths he has gone to to make amends for his actions in the war, including directly challenging Japan's culture of denial and disinterest in the war crimes committed by its soldiers during the war.

The Railway Man is one of the most powerful experiences of life in wartime I have ever read. Lomax illuminates the so-called 'forgotten war' by showing the rank foolishness that led to Singapore's capture, the overconfidence of the British POWs whose initial freedoms led them into a false sense of security, and the horrors of torture, in which no punches are pulled. Lomax describes his own mistreatment in a somewhat dispassionate tone for the most part, but occasionally his fury and anger at his mistreatment comes through, undimmed by fifty years of peace (the book was originally published in 1995). Lomax refuses to consider himself a hero, citing many of his fellow soldiers whose feats were more impressive (such as the Scottish officer who grabbed a rifle off a startled Japanese guard to put a bullet through one of his own men dying from cholera after the Japanese proved unable to shoot him accurately), but, as with many old soldiers, Lomax dismisses his own achievements too easily. Lomax refuses to give out any names or compromise the network that led to the construction of the radios, despite being put through treatments almost too horrendous to contemplate (including the Japanese practice of repeated waterboarding), saving the lives of his colleagues. The final section, dealing with the reconciliation, is quietly hopeful, with the reader left hoping that the author has indeed exorcised his demons through the process of the meeting and the writing of this book.

The Railway Man (*****) is a remarkable story, powerful, moving and intense, and again confirming that people can endure incredible hardships under extraordinary circumstances when the need is greatest. It is a book that everyone with an interest in the Second World War should read. It is available now in the UK and USA.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Gripping Story 14 Jan 2014

By Declan Gray

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Very well written account of the SE Asia theatre of WW2.
'Into the Valley of Death rode the 600' has not much on the 50,000 into the Jungle railroad of Burma.
For me historically informative as indeed a Signals Officer is well placed to be.
Puts a completely different perspective on 'The Bridge over the River Kwai'. Authors comment on the film,
'.....the best fed POWs I have ever seen....'
Clash of cultures Western and Japanese clear in the narrative.
The lasting effects on the survivors and the author and to some extent both sides points up starkly the unsung heroes
that war veterans can be. Reminds us that the same was true of WW1 combatants.
The reconciliation, almost incredible, shows how confronting the anger can bring closure.

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars superb read 9 July 2007

By D. Johnson

Format:Paperback

Not being an avid reader of books I picked up this one after being recommended by John Gaunt on Talksport.
Though I'd give it a go... and it blew me away. There are two parts in particular that literally reduced me to tears.
But as i said I don't normally read books however this is a masterpiece and has sparked off a whole new passion for reading within me.
I have subsequently bought 3 more books on the subject and having read the Railway man I can't wait to start the next.
If you don't have this book in your collection you must be mad!!!!!!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good

A very good read if a bit harrowing at times. Tells it how it was. Difficult to put down once started.

Published 7 hours ago by Gerry Liles

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgiveness!

I found this a very moving account of what happened in the Far East during the war. I too find myself feeling uncomfortable over the atrocities which happened as my uncle was a... Read more

Published 17 hours ago by Dodo

5.0 out of 5 stars A very well written book about the trials in one man's life

A truly amazing account of a man's attempts to come to terms with the effects of the brutal sub-human torture meted out to him over years whilst a prisoner of the Japanese during... Read more

Published 20 hours ago by para3drop

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book.

Bought this book not really knowing what to expect but it was really excellent. Totally fascinating , alarming and amazing peoples ability to survive the most awful... Read more

Published 1 day ago by felicity jane osborne

4.0 out of 5 stars Power in forgivness

I felt this account was well written, gave great insight to the atrocities of war, the power of forgiveness is truly remarkable. Read more

Published 1 day ago by Janet C Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative read

This book opened up a portion of history that I lived through but, despite having lots of information about Europe and the holocaust, there was very little said about the horrors... Read more

Published 2 days ago by Doreen Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars no answer

No answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,How do you get. Off of this bloody page.and get on.is this some kind of joke .or. A wind up.

Published 2 days ago by John Sharman

4.0 out of 5 stars My uncle was a prisoner of war in Changi

My uncle died in Changi and I was interested to read about the existence and suffering of those in the camps.

Published 2 days ago by Richard Manning

5.0 out of 5 stars period of suffering.

an excellent book well focus and written of a period in which these events took place and are being forgotten to quickly by the modern
generation

Published 3 days ago by corney walker

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing man

A very detailed account of his life helping you to build a true picture of the man .What courage & what endurance. A horrific picture of the atrocities.

Published 3 days ago by Josephine Dolton,Colin Pearson

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