Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A stunning book, among the most immediate and thrilling works of history I have ever read’ At 8:15am on August 6th 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In an instant, the temperature at its core rose to millions of degrees. Sixty-thousand buildings were obliterated. A third of the city’s population died, by heat, by the blast, and by a terrible new weapon in the history of warfare: radiation. In this riveting account, Stephen Walker follows the stories of real people in the extraordinary weeks leading up to the explosion and in its aftermath. From the atomic engineer who armed the bomb in mid-air to the Japanese doctors treating thousands of burnt bodies on the ground. From the flight crews and scientists to world leaders and civilian victims. With intimate testimony and remarkable stories, this is the startling narrative behind the dawn of the atomic age. Stephen Walker's SHOCKWAVE is a compelling narrative of the 20th century's defining military event, the Hiroshima bombing. It delves into the nuclear technology and engineering feats of the era, providing a top-tier account of Asia's modern history. For fans of Jonathan H. Ward (Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars), Michael Leinbach (Bringing Columbia Home), Jeff Shesol (Supreme Power), Serhii Plokhy (The Russo-Ukrainian War), and Adam Higginbotham (Challenger).