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Thursday Afternoon Book Discussion
"Ghosts of Hiroshima" by Charles Pellegrino
Thursday, August 06
1:30pm - 2:30pm
James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library
Beth Patridge Meeting RoomDo you have afternoons available? Join us at the Library for some coffee, confections, and conversation about the titles chosen by fellow book club members! đ â
Plot: SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ACADEMY AWARDâWINNING FILMMAKER JAMES CAMERONÂ
"No one recognized the flashes of bright light that filled the sky. Survivors described colors they couldnât name. The blast wave that followed seemed to strike with no sound. In that silence came the dawn of atomic death for two hundred thousand souls. On August 6, 1945, twenty-nine-year-old naval engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on the last day of a business trip, looking forward to returning home to his wife and infant son, when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He survived the atomic blast and got on a train to Nagasaki, only to be bombed again. Jacob Beser, a Manhattan Project engineer, looked down on Hiroshima and saw the ground boiling. He refused to look at Nagasaki at all. Years afterward, he referred to what he witnessed as âthe most bizarre and spectacular two events in the history of manâs inhumanity to man.â From that first millionth of a second, people began to die in previously unimaginable ways. Near Hiroshimaâs hypocenter, teeth were scattered on the ground, speckles of incandescent blood were converted to carbon steel, a childâs marbles melted to blobs of molten glass. From the bombs were born radioactive substances that mimicked calcium in growing bones and which, ten years after, filled entire hospitals with a shocking nuclear weapons, more than anything else, were child-killers. Based on years of forensic archaeology combined with interviews of more than two hundred survivors and their families, Ghosts of Hiroshima is a you-are-there account of ordinary human beings thrust into extraordinary events, during which our modern civilization entered its most challenging phaseâa nuclear adolescence that, unless we are very wise and learn from our past, we may not." (Goodreads.com)
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đ Copies of the book are provided by our Friends of Duncan Library, become a Friend today to support Library programs! https://www.friendsofduncanlibrary.org
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Summer Quest | Book Discussion Groups |
TAGS: | WWII | SummerQuest | Summer Quest | Japan | History | Hiroshima | FODL | Book Discussion Group | #SummerQuest |
James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library
Parking: There is a small lot with 9 spaces. On street parking is available.
Public Transit:
- Metrorail: Yellow and Blue lines at Braddock Road (1.3 miles) and King Street Stations (1.5 miles)
- Metrobus: A11, A12
- DASH Bus: 33
For reasonable disability accommodation, contact jgregorio@alexlibraryva.org or call 703.746.1701 or TTY 703.746.1790.

