The Ash Garden
It is said that a good host always leaves his guests wanting more. I find that doesn’t apply to authors, and this book is typical of the reasons why. The story is intriguing and has a few surprising twists, but at its conclusion I was left wondering what happened to the next 60 or 70 pages I felt should be there.
Emiko Amai was a little girl playing with her brother in a stream when the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on her city on August 6, 1945. Horribly disfigured, she suffers through years of prodding doctors and scientists and finally receives plastic surgery in the United States; surgery which leaves a telling, artificial sheen to her skin and does nothing to heal the scars on her soul.
Anton Böll is a scientist who helped develop the bomb that scarred Emiko and killed her brother. After the war he becomes a professor and later tours the lecture circuit in an attempt to convince others that dropping the bomb was necessary and justified.
One day Emiko walks in at the end of one of Anton’s lectures. They agree to meet later at his home in Canada. With those tasty treats on the table, I leave the reader to decide if the meal lives up to the appetizers.
