Michael Norman & Elizabeth M. Norman

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath

The battle of Bataan in the Philippines in 1942 resulted in America's worst military defeat ever, with Japan taking some 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war. In Tears of Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath, the Normans write a gripping narrative of the battle, the surrender, and the infamous death march that introduced the captives to the starvation, dehydration and murderous Japanese brutality that would become routine for the next three years. Focusing intermittently on American POW Ben Steele, whose sketches adorn the book, this New York Times best seller follows the prisoners through the hell of Japanese prison and labor camps. A husband and wife team, Michael is a former reporter for The New York Times, and Elizabeth is the author of two other books about the war: We Band of Angels and Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam. Both Michael and Elizabeth are alumni of Rutgers University in Newark.

New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner named Tears in the Darkness as one of his "Top 10 Books of 2009."

Review in The New York Times Books of the Times, June 16, 2009

Read an excerpt