The Ash Garden

The Ash Garden, told from two different perspectives, tells the very personal story of a scientist that helped build the atomic bomb, and that of a young Japanese girl who was only six years old when the bomb was detonated on her home town of Hiroshima. The novel switches between the two viewpoints and traces how the bomb affected each of them and how their lives became intertwined. Anton is an Austrian scientist who escaped Europe during WWII to pursue science in a manner that the Germans were not. He found himself a part of the Manhattan Project and built the atomic bomb that was ultimately dropped on Japan bringing an end to the war. While he continues to contend that the bomb saved lives by showing the world what America was prepared to do he is not without regret. He saw first hand what the bomb did to the innocent civilians and the lives that it took. Much to his wife's disappointment, he is never the same again and spends his career after the war educating college students and reliving his role in the devastation. Emiko was six when the bomb was dropped on her hometown. She lost her parents and younger brother and suffered severe scarring herself, making her an outcast among the other children of Hiroshima. As a young teenager she is chosen to travel to America as one of 25 other young girls where doctors believe that they can fix their damaged and scarred skin. She finds a life of filmmaking develop from the opportunities provided her in the United States and ultimately seeks out Anton to be a part of the documentary she is making on this part of WWII that is so significant to them both. Anton and Emiko's lives parallel in many ways that the two do not initially realize. Throughout this novel we learn of the devastation and tragedy that both suffer as a result of the dropping of the bomb. At the same time, we also learn of the good that comes out of the event that shapes their lives. Considered by some to be the modern counterpart of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, the book can definately be considered a commentary on the negative aspects of scientific development and how mankind does not always benefit from our cutting edge progress. Wound throughout the science and historical narrative is a deeply touching story. Human vulnerability is at it's height with these characters and Bock has written them in such a way that the reader can see straight into their hearts. Despite jumping around from one perspective to the other a bit incoherently at times, this book is highly recommended.

Sometimes, chance encounters with books lead to discoveries you wouldn't want to miss. Finding "The Ash Garden" has been one such experience. It is a superbly written, subtle, yet complex human interest story placed against the backdrop of historical events. Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the atom bomb's devastating short term impacts reverberate through the story. The lingering long term effects, politically and emotionally, connect the three protagonists: the German scientist, having left Europe to participate in the bomb's development, the documentary film journalist who survived the attack as a child, seriously scarred, and the scientist's wife, a refugee from the Nazi regime. Bock succeeds in creating a deeply moving portrait of the three people whose lives are dramatically connected through these events. They also draw them to each other, almost despite themselves. Each section is written in the distinct voice of one of the protagonists, thereby allowing each to express his or her perspective on the events over a period of fifty years. The narrative moves between present and past, each episode providing another building block for us to understand their lives' complexities. We are exposed to their emotional conflicts and follow the often detached scrutiny of their respective behaviours and attitudes. Their recollections of the historical events naturally differ, so do their assessments of their human emotions, whether love, betrayal, guilt, shame, selfishness or atonement. Yet, the story builds gently and none of what is shared overwhelms the reader. Bock writes with great empathy for the characters, exploring their personalities without passing judgement on their action or inaction at the different stages of their lives. Bock has described his interest in writing fiction as "raising big questions" of human society. Major topics that escape clear black and white answers. For example, the scientist joined the Los Alamos team because building the atom bomb " was the only way to end the war". Yet, during his research mission to Hiroshima to "scientifically assess the bomb's impact", he is exposed to the human suffering of innocent civilians. In "The Ash Garden", Bock proves himself a master in exploring the grey zones between right and wrong, innocence and responsibility. The narrative moves towards the anticipated and necessary confrontation between the victim and the scientist, in her view co-responsible for her suffering. The outcome is everything but clear-cut or obvious, but consistent within the story and the intentions of the author. A deeply moving and beautiful book with important messages for us all. [Friederike Knabe]

I read The Ashgarden twice; Dennis Bock has a beautiful style and the storyline flows. The book is filled with lyrical passages as the one when, after Sophie's death, Anton remembers how 'she had tended her garden like weather massaging the land'. It's interesting too how Bock compares the skins of Emiko and Sophie: Emiko's burns were 'like patterns on the skin ... tattoos of fire, and Sophie's skin, revaged by Erythematosis, was 'like small bits of smouldering fire ... wishing to be released from her body'. It's reinforcing the idea that Sophie, in a mystical way, was connected with the awful happenings in Hiroshima in August 1945.I agree with previous reviewers that Bock's characterizations have flaws, and that the scene with the children playing in the snow is somewhat distracting from the story. (But the description of the snow landscape reads like a painting!) Similarly I didn't feel the relationship between Sophie and Stephano, the Italian from Pescara, was convincing enough to be included. However, the deepening relationship between Anton and Sophie is a touching one, and altogether this book is worth to own, to read again and again. Hopefully Bock will bring us more books in the future.

Many books - fiction as well as non-fiction - have been written around the events of August 6, 1945. When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the world changed forever - and such an occurrence will be chronicled in many ways, for it touched and altered the lives of everyone on the planet. John Hersey's remarkable HIROSHIMA comes to mind, along with many other that have appeared since. Dennis Bock's novel THE ASH GARDEN is an astonishing, deeply moving look at the lives of three people - a German scientist who immigrated to America in order to work on the Manhattan Project; a young Austrian girl, sent away from the horrors to come by her parents, never to see them again; and a Japanese girl, just seven years old at the time, playing with her little brother on a riverbank, watching as a single plane approaches her city.Bock's literary gifts are stunning. His descriptive abilities are deep and varied - I found myself reading passages over again when I realized that he had, obliquely rather than obviously, made a scene appear in my mind as clearly as if I were seeing it with my eyes. He applies this amazing talent to his characterizations as well - there are aspects of each character that are addressed directly, but many facets of their personalities and psyches are revealed more subtly, by conversations, thoughts and actions. I found the characters portrayed here - and this is, for me, the heart of all great writing - completely fleshed-out and whole. Each one has their strengths and weaknesses, with good and bad intentions vying within for dominance - and each one comes to know themselves as they come to know the ones with whom their lives are intertwined. Preconceptions exist and are seen to crumble - it's a fascinating process, and one that occurs within all of us as we live our lives and interact with others. To see it so subtly and completely reproduced on the printed page is a marvel.Besides chronicling the events connected with the bombing of Hiroshima, and their consequences in the lives of these characters, the book deals very adeptly and thoroughly with the voyage of discovery that each one of them makes. Anton Böll, the émigré scientist, leaves his native Germany because he sees that the German atomic program is headed down a dead end - he knows that his talents and abilities will be put to much more fruitful use in America. He knows the horrible power that the weapon on which he is working will unleash - and he truly sees it as a necessary thing: a way to end the war. He also hopes, along with several of his fellows, that, once the power of this weapon is seen, there will never again be temptation to actually use it. He hopes against hope that the US government will choose to use it on a military target - but he also knows that they will most likely pick a civilian one. As the years pass after the war, he attends the annual rallies commemorating the event - not so much to ease his conscience as to make sure that th

"The Ash Garden" is a poetic read that helped me cope with the aftermath of Sept 11th. It's a true literary work, one whose examination of the people affected by the Hiroshima bombings (scientists as well as citizens) is written more eloquently than most modern novels; you are moved by both the content and the author's fluid style. I found myself finally feeling more at peace with the horror that was 9/11; I hadn't expected that a novel would be my helpmate as I've struggled with what has occurred, but it's overall calming force was very welcome. I recommend the novel highly.