America's Children - Hardcover

Thackara, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701127805 ISBN 13: 9780701127800

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1984

Synopsis

America's Children is a multi-layered story of Christian and Marxist values; of love of family and land; of invisible high-energy particles and Pentagon technocrats; of thrilling scientific discovery and the unspeakable reality of Hiroshima. A novel for our age, America's Children is a sublime and truly American story of the theft of atomic fire, the agonies of political and moral conscience, and the future of our planet in a nuclear world.

About this title

Review:

...reveals how one man's hunger for knowledge can lead to all of mankind living in the belly of the beast. -- Waterstone's Online, 5 March 2003

An absorbing and tragic meditation on the fall from innocence... His imaginative portrait of Oppenheimer...takes on mythic force. -- Time Out, May 17, 1984

Embodied in the story...are the great myths of Prometheus, Faust, Frankenstein and, in knowledge of nuclear evil, the Fall. -- City Limits, May 18, 1984

Glorious descriptions of nature's might and mystery stand in contrast to man's pathetic folly. -- Booklist (starred review)

Thackara's chilling descriptions...are terrific. As Iraq and North Korea scramble for this unholy grail, Oppenheimer's anguish feels depressingly contemporary. -- The Economist, , March 8, 2003

Synopsis:

Garnering critical acclaim and rights sales in five countries, The Book of Kings established Thackara as a novelist of extraordinary range and vision. AMERICA'S CHILDREN, his first novel, tells the story of J. Robert Oppenhemier - our own modern Faust, our Prometheus - whose life is the perfect symbol of man's enlightened conquest of nature, his crisis of guilt, and his struggle for responsibility. A multi-layered story of Christian and Marxist values; of love of family and land; of invisible high-energy particles and Pentagon technocrats; of thrilling scientific discovery and the unspeakable reality of Hiroshima, the great classical myths of man's mastery over nature suffuse AMERICA'S CHILDREN with a seductive, deathly glow. This is a sublime story of the theft of atomic fire, the agonies of political and moral conscience, and our future a nuclear world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0701127805
• ISBN 13: 9780701127800
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336