This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 0140024026.

This is war as experienced in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java in 1942, but, above all, war as experienced in the souls of men. What follows is the story of two British officers whose spirits the Japanese try to break. Yet out of all the violence and misery strange bonds of love and friendship are forged between the prisoners - and their gaolers. It is a battle of survival that becomes a battle of contrasting wills and philosophies as the intensity of the men's relationship develops.