THE BREAKING JEWEL

A 1998 novel about the defense of a small South Pacific island against American invasion—its Japanese author’s first in English translation—displays a riveting economy and intensity. Oda’s central character Sergeant Nakamura is a skillfully drawn “war lover”: a dedicated solider sworn that “My body will be a bulwark of the Pacific,” and a harsh disciplinarian whose fervor is effectively contrasted, especially in its closing pages, with the more fatalistic dutifulness of his Korean subordinate Corporal Kon. The climactic “war of attrition” that demands the anticipated and foreshadowed ultimate sacrifice is depicted in unflinchingly graphic detail that makes this excellent little tale very much something of an Asian Red Badge of Courage.