The Phoenix Tree

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THE PHOENIX TREE is a novel about spies rather than a spy novel.In the closing days of World War II, two friends - Kenji Minato and Tom Akada, both serving in the United States Navy, are sent on a mission to Japan. Their urgent task as undercover agents is to identify members of the Peace Faction and to estimate its strength.Their wireless operator is Natasha Cairns - the widow of an English agent who becomes more than just a colleague to Tom as their love for each other grows.Amidst the dark terrors of the blanket bombing of Tokyo and the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two spies find out more about themselves than their mission. Each faces a struggle to come to terms with the war and, even more, with a dishonourable peace.The tensions of war and secrecy, of disaster and love, told by a master storyteller.'Completely entertaining' THE OBSERVER