From AwardAnnals
| Book: | Tree of Heaven: A Novel |
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| Author: | R.C. Binstock |
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| Publisher: | Soho Press |
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The year is 1938. The Japanese army has occupied Nanking. Kuroda, a junior officer trained as a botanist, has been left in charge of a garrison town. When he comes upon a starving, filthy Chinese woman being assaulted by his soldiers, a common enough occurrence, he does the remarkable: he rescues her and gives her his protection. Li has no choice; she becomes his servant, and a strange intimacy, born of circumstances, ensues.
