Biyi Bandele

As humane, ridiculous and moving as Waugh's novels of the world at war

A gripping narrative - by turns pathetic, comic and exciting

Fascinating...unusual...invigorating...and very funny

A superb Second World War adventure... tender and funny

Vividly recreates the violence and drama of a forgotten war, describing the camaraderie between fighting men with humour and compassion

A novel that resonates across the pages with the narrative mastery of the griot's voice

A hauntingly beautiful elegy for those who killed and died in the service of a history that was not their own. Like Ha Jin's magisterial War Trash, Burma Boy wields the two greatest weapons in the novelist's arsenal - imagination and empathy - to shattering effect

James Schamus, producer Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm

Original ...often very funny. A magical book

Kevin MacDonald, Director:  The Last King of Scotland

A riveting read, convincingly imagined and cinematically told. Bandele is a gifted storyteller

A truly fantastic book. A caesarean cut through terrifying and hilarious history

A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease. 
 
Burma Boy is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.

Burma Boy

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Biyi Bandele

Praise for Burma Boy

As humane, ridiculous and moving as Waugh's novels of the world at war

A gripping narrative - by turns pathetic, comic and exciting

Fascinating...unusual...invigorating...and very funny

As humane, ridiculous and moving as Waugh's novels of the world at war

A gripping narrative - by turns pathetic, comic and exciting

Fascinating...unusual...invigorating...and very funny

As humane, ridiculous and moving as Waugh's novels of the world at war

A gripping narrative - by turns pathetic, comic and exciting

Fascinating...unusual...invigorating...and very funny

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