Have I read this before: Yes! I can’t remember when, though.

Review: So I don’t think I knew this the first time I read this book (it was a while ago…probably in high school), but the six characters that are followed in the book are real people. I think I had been under the impression that these were six fictional individuals that were introduced to describe the varying experiences and effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on six people who had no real reason to have survived it given where they were in the city. But the fact that they were real people who went through all that they went through makes this book even more impactful. The impact is further developed by the fact that Hersey doesn’t just describe the immediate effects of the bomb on these people but follows them throughout the rest of their lives and discusses all the ways the trauma and the radiation sickness effected them until they died.

Favorite part: I liked the way that the focus skipped from character to character throughout the book but also showed that several of them were actually connected in various ways and interacted in the book.

Rating: 5/10