King Rat

The epic novel of war savagery and survival in a Japanese
POW camp by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and
unparalleled master of historical fiction James Clavell
Japanese POW camp Changi Singapore: hell on earth for the
soldiers contained within its barbed wire walls. Officers
and enlisted men all prisoners together yet the old
hierarchies and rivalries survive. An American corporal
known as the King has used his personality and wiles to
facilitate trading with guards and locals to get needed
food supplies even information into the camp. The
imprisoned upper-class officers have never had to do
things for themselves and now they are reduced to wearing
rags while the King’s clean shirt gained through guts and
moxie seems like luxury in comparison. In the camp
everything has its price and everything is for sale. But
trading is illegal—and the King has made a formidable
enemy. Robin Grey the provost marshal hates the King and
all he represents. Grey though he grew up modestly
fervently believes in the British class system: everyone
should know their place and he knows the King’s place is
at the bottom. The King does have a friend in Peter
Marlowe who though wary of the King and himself a product
of the British system finds himself drawn to the
charismatic man who just might be the only one who can
save them from both the inhumanity of the prison camp but
also from themselves. Powerful and engrossing King Rat
artfully weaves the author’s own World War II prison camp
experiences into a compelling narrative of survival amidst
the grim realities of war and what men can do when pushed
to the edge. A taut masterwork of World War II historical
fiction by bestselling author James Clavell.