Broken Jewel: A Novel
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About this ebook
For three years after the fall of Manila, 2,100 Allied civilians have been imprisoned at Los Baños Internment Camp, 40 miles to the southeast and notorious for its horrendous conditions. American Remy Tuck, the camp's resident gambler, struggles daily with his Japanese army captors to keep his community of Americans, Brits, and Dutch alive, as they stave off starvation and protect one another from vicious punishments. Remy's son, Talbot, now nineteen, has become a man while in captivity. Headstrong to the hilt and a nimble thief, Tal can move like a snake under the guards' noses and defies their orders at every opportunity.
On the other side of the barbed wire, looking down on the camp, is the Filipina Carmen, a "comfort woman" who has been kidnapped by the Japanese, raped, and forced into sexual slavery to service the Imperial Japanese Army. Carmen battles to keep herself physically and emotionally intact. A favorite of one of the guards, she accepts his occasional kindnesses but has eyes only for Tal, whose fortitude in the face of great suffering astounds her. Tal, in turn, looks up to Carmen's high window and sees the grace and courage with which she endures her imprisonment. Without speaking, the two fall in love above the encampment grounds.
As the tide of the war in the Pacific turns against the Japanese, tensions and danger in the camp escalate. In the face of all but certain execution at the hands of their captors, Remy and Tal enact a daring plan to save their fellow prisoners and the woman Tal loves.
David L. Robbins
New York Times bestselling author David L. Robbins has published thirteen action-packed novels, including War of the Rats, Broken Jewel, The Betrayal Game, The Assassins Gallery, and Scorched Earth. His latest literary efforts explore the adventures and extraordinary talents of the US military’s most elite Special Forces group, the US Air Force’s pararescuemen, known as the PJs, serving under the motto “That Others May Live.” An award-winning essayist and screenwriter, Robbins founded the James River Writers, an organization dedicated to supporting professional and aspiring authors. He also cofounded the Podium Foundation, which encourages artistic expression in Richmond’s public schools. Lately his charitable energies have gone into creating the Mighty Pen Project, a writing program for Virginia’s military veterans. Robbins is an avid sailor on the Chesapeake Bay and extends his creative scope beyond fiction as an accomplished guitarist. He currently teaches advanced creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University Honors College. Robbins lives in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.
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Reviews for Broken Jewel
3 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Broken Jewel by David L. Robbins is a story of survival, war and love set in the Philippines during WW II as MacArthur’s forces have returned to liberate these islands. The retreating Japanese had a policy of leaving no witnesses behind and had already killed many civilians and prisoners. Concern was mounting for the internees housed at the prison camp of Los Banos, and in a daring rescue, American Forces joined with several guerrilla outfits to go behind Japanese lines to save these people.The story is centered on Remy Tuck and his son Talbot who have been in the prison camp for years. Tuck has grown almost to manhood behind the barbed wire. Remy has worked and plotted to save many of his fellow prisoners from starvation and illness and tries to always keep his son safe from the vicious punishments that are given for the slightest of missteps. Overseeing the camp is the comfort station and a young Filipina, Carmen is kept there. Kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery as a comfort women, Carmen watches Tal from afar with admiration as he is a brave and forthright young man, outsmarting and defying the guards at every opportunity. Tal is also very taken with Carmen who handles her situation with grace and courage, passing on the information she is able to gather to the guerrillas. The author excels in his research and his attention to historical detail really helped to place the reader in this time and place. The story of deprivation and cruelty contrasted with the warm bonding of father and son, and the blossoming love between a man and a woman. I found Broken Jewel to be an excellent read, a perfect combination of great storytelling loaded with suspense, action, and historical information.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a very enjoyable read - I particularly liked that it was a war story about heroic civilians. While I'm not at all well-read in this genre, I feel like civilians in WWII novels are usually straightforwardly tragic victims, while soldiers get to run around kicking Nazi ass and saving the day. None of these characters allow themselves to remain victims, which makes them an especially compelling kind of admirable.
Fabulous amounts of research that sit lightly on the page.
I found the whole Reservoir Dogs-esque scene near the end a bit confusing, but I was also pretty sleepy.
And, oh yes, my creative writing class is mentioned in the acknowledgements :D - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5During WWII the Japanese imprisoned over 2000 Allied civilians in Los Banos Internment Camp in the Philippines. Among them were Tal and Remy Tuck. Father and son while never close after the death of Tal's mother, drift even further apart. Conditions were poor, but as the tide of the war began to turn in favor of the Allied forces the Japanese brutality became unbearable inside the barbed wire. Just outside the camp, but equally imprisoned, lived Carmen-a Japanese sex slave (comfort woman.) As the war in the Pacific comes to a head lives of both sides of the barbed wire will be lost in an effort to free the internees. Robbins has written a terrific story about survival, inhumanity, and surprisingly love. Based on actual events this is a story written not just a book for men, but for anyone interested in learning what men are capable of during times of war .