Beside a Burning Sea

Beside a Burning Sea by John Shors

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After I read the wonderful novel The Wishing Trees, I knew that I had to read John Shors’ earlier works. Beside a Burning Sea is the enduring story of how love and forgiveness can overcome all things. Set in the South Pacific, during World War II a US hospital ship named the Benevolence is afloat with hundreds of men, women, and the injured. Unknown to its occupants, a traitorous American officer is aboard, a man who has sold out to the enemy and who knows that within minutes the ship will be bombed and sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor. Only nine survive the horrible explosion, including the betrayer, the captain of the ship, two nurses, an injured Japanese soldier and a child. Managing to barely swim to a lovely island, not yet destroyed by fighting, they do not yet know that the Japanese fleet is headed their way. Amidst the guilt, revenge, and horrible, tragic memories, love and a hope for the future survive.




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