John Hersey

Describes the effect of the bombing of Hiroshima on six survivors of the atomic blast.

"Bluefish," writes the author, are "animated chopping machines. They will eat anything alive. They have stripped the toes from surfers in Florida. They can't not eat." Hersey weaves fact and legend around his subject, engaging the reader with juicy details of ocean life, philosophy, natural history, and the crises into which man has let his environment slide.

While in China on business in the 1920s, a young American engineer becomes involved in the lives of people who live on a junk on the Yangtze River.

War Lover follows Buzz Morrow, a pilot who glorifies war and his military duties. The author makes the point that wars exist precisely because there are men like Buzz who revel in them. At the same time, he also gives us a detailed account of a Flying Fortress crew based in England during WW II.

"In July 1967, on the third night of a race riot, Detroit police raided the Algiers Motel, a black-owned business located about a mile from the epicenter of the unrest. The police responded to a report of sniper fire from the motel and proceeded to round up its occupants. They beat them and threatened to kill them. Three black men were killed that night, and no one was convicted for their deaths. John Hersey's book strings together interviews, police...