Black Rain is centered around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. lbuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the atom bomb. The life of Yasuko, on whom the black rain fell, is changed forever by periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected.lbuse tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.
- ISBN10 087011364X
- ISBN13 9780870113642
- Publish Date 15 October 1988 (first published 15 March 1971)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 21 September 2012
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Kodansha America, Inc
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 304
- Language English