THE PHOENIX TREE is a 1984 novel from Australian award-winning author Jon Cleary, set in Japan during the last days of World War II.
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.
- ISBN10 0006170218
- ISBN13 9780006170211
- Publish Date 25 July 1985 (first published 28 June 1984)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 July 1995
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Fontana Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 352
- Language English