While I liked this book very much, I am glad I did not read it right after reading Beneath a Marble Sky. This is a very good read. I like stories centered around WWII but this story didn't feel like a war story. I also liked the South Pacific setting bc so many stories about the war are set in Europe. Most people don't even realize or they forget that a war was going on in Asia. Shors has a great talent for being a gifted storyteller. He is able to describe places so beautifully you really can see them. It was like watching a movie in my mind. There was suspense, love, revenge. I did find it a little unbelievable who the survivors were-the captain & his wife & her sister (who happen to be both be nurses), another nurse, an engineer, 2 officers, a stowaway & a prisoner of war'. How convenient! But this didn't stop me from enjoying the story. I liked the unlikely love story & the friendship between the young stowaway & big Jake. The ending was a bit of a stretch for me too. I've read enough non fiction to know there are survivors of war through the most unlikely circumstances (Unbroken for one) but Annie jumping out of the lifeboat to go back for Akira was corny. And then the remaining survivors going back to get Annie....they weren't trained soldiers so I had a hard time with that one! Overall, still a good read & I am a fan of Shors. In this WWII melodrama the eight survivors of the sinking of a hospital ship find themselves stranded on a nearby tropical island in the middle of the pacific ocean. This ships sinking is due to sabotage by an American Lieutenant in league with the Japanese who masquerades as a survivor along side them.There is a love story that develops between two of the survivors, a Japanese prisoner and nurse. Akira teaches Annie about the art of haiku poetry while she nurses him back to health. There is very little chemistry between the two and the mediocre haiku borders on being just plain cheesy sometimes. In fact, I found myself skipping pages during the scenes between these two. I was just bored!It just so conveniently happens that two of the eight survivors happen to be Captain, Joshua, and his nurse wife, Isabella (who, also conveniently, is Annie's sister). The relationship between these two is puzzling and the reader gets whiplash between the swings back and forth between their marriage being on the verge of collapse and neither of them knowing if they'll make it to them telling each other how much they love and need each other! All within a page or two!! Oh, and of course...to add even more spice to the mix.... Isabella after years of trying, is pregnant now of all times! And in true melodramatic style she tells Joshua the news on a cliff at sunset overlooking the spot where the ship went down as he is mourning his ship and those lost on it. It was just all too much!If you can't guess already, I really did not enjoy this novel at all. It started out promising but soon delved into predictable and too convenient story lines. The characters were really bad or really good and they were all really emotional! There was no tension or build up between Akira and Annie, the villain is discovered with in the first 25 or so pages, and the Captain, his wife, being eight survivors out of hundreds of passengers on the doomed ship was just too convenient and unimaginative. So while I excitedly waited for this book to arrive and then couldn't wait to dive into it, I ended up being disappointed with the story as a whole and cannot recommend it.
What do You think about De Overlevenden (2012)?
It was a good book, lots of description, not a lot of action. Slow to start but picked up nicely!
—apple
Couldn't finish this book (or even get passed the third chapter). Very melodramatic.
—tbrisa
Fascinating view of survivors from a WWII hospital ship. Comes off as anti-war
—tete99
