Beside a Burning Sea

Best-selling author John Shors is a master storyteller. A novel of mercy, love, and renewal in a time of war, Beside a Burning Sea is hailed as "a magical read" ( Publishers Weekly).

During World War II, the hospital ship Benevolence is providing relief to victims in the South Pacific when she is torpedoed and sunk. Among the survivors are a troubled nurse named Annie and the wounded Japanese soldier named Akira who saves her life.

©2008 John Shors (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Most Beautiful Book

This is one of my most favorite books, and re-reading it has been a joy! However, while the narrator was fine, I would have loved to experience this book with a full cast!

Surprisingly entertaining

Read like a Hollywood movie with typical themes: an unlikely romance, strong plutonic bonds, a nice amount of action and intrigue, and an antagonistic evil enough to come from a Stephen Ming novel. Is it realistic? Not really, but there’s always non-fiction for that (I’ve read less realistic seeming non fiction as well). Ignore the low star reviews, they seem to be made in bad faith. The setting was unique enough and the ending fit quiet well, even if a little predictable. I’m not even a romance fan but the relationship wasn’t sappy nor overdone, I appreciated the tenderness and philosophy included in it. Richard Poe delivered with the narration as he always does.

Unsatisfied with the ending!

I stuck with this long winded, tedious, repetitive and rather far fetched story only to find the author couldn’t be bothered to write a satisfying ending. Not an author whose work I would listen to again!

Unbelievable

I really wanted to like this book. I like the time period and the setting and even the premise. But I just could not like it. The dialogue was very melodramatic and the whole scenario just was implausiable to the nth degree. I can live with some degree of unbelievability in a book but this was too much.