It is as chilling a description as any of the day Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945. Schoolteacher-turned-munitions factory worker Hiroko Tanaka notices the perfect blueness of the sky. Later she, a survivor, will remember that day as grey; her lover, a German, Konrad, is waiting for the war to be over so that the two of them can “find an island” away from everyone. Moments after they pledge their love for each other and Nagasaki is more beautiful than ever on that August morning, “the world goes white”. And Hiroko’s life — and other people’s across countries and generations she shares history with — change forever. Hiroko sees Konrad’s shadow on a rock near where the bomb fell and is sure it’s him because “no one else in Nagasaki could cast such a long shadow”. As for Hiroko, three black cranes on the kimono she is wearing are etched on her back forever.

This is a sweeping saga of our times, looking back to the past to connect with the present. The terrifying prologue about a Gitmo prisoner who wonders how his life comes to this is always at the back of your mind. But the history lesson comes in the form of Hiroko’s moving story. So, we follow her as she leaves Nagasaki for Tokyo and then on to India two years later to move in with Konrad’s half-sister Elizabeth and her husband James Burton, enjoying the last moments of the Raj in Delhi and yet concerned about the shape of things to come with two nations being born in bloodshed.

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