A literary masterpiece of astounding intellect and candour
In his first major prose work since 2002’s Broken Song, Barry Hill has written an epic – a travel book, a history book, a peace book. His odyssey begins with a pilgrimage to Bodhi Gaya in India, where the Buddha received enlightenment and ends after he reaches Nagasaki, Japan, in the aftermath of its atomic bomb.
His travelling is imbued with the life and ideas of India’s great artist and intellectual Rabindranath Tagore, along with that of MK Gandhi. Hill then travels, like Tagore, in Japan, and meditates on its militarist turn, its warmongering Buddhism and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, with its riddled post-colonial legacy. He presents a meditation on the long history of bombing, and the terrifying role of the aeroplane, of which Tagore was prescient. He goes to Zen temples, secret islands, and into some of the recesses of Japanese history, all the while musing on his own capacity for inner-disarmament. Hill also has his late father with him, a union man and Australian peace activist, whose left-humanism may not be enough for the wars and ruins the West has recently created.
Peacemongers has groundbreaking historical work on Tagore's Buddhism, the mind-states of those who dropped the atomic bombs, and the role of Justice Radhabinod Pal, the dissenting judge and Hindu law scholar at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial.
The discourse of this work – poetic, mobile, ambivalent – seeks to be an antidote to the political impotence of progressive thought over the last decade. But Peacemongers does not simply peddle hope, although hope can be found here, in its quality of scrutiny.
‘Barry Hill’s long-awaited Peacemongers was worth the wait and is worth its weight in platinum.’ Paul Kane, Professor of English, Vassar College, Australian Book Review Books of the Year 2014
‘Barry Hill has written a maverick, daring, vulnerable, and vigilant book for our times ... a brave and heterodox work of art.’ Gerry Simpson, Professor of International Law at London School of Economics
‘It’s an amazing tour de force – a huge amount of research in a text full of magical insights. The whole book has given me much to think about, and it's particularly timely given the alarming tensions in East Asia at the moment.’ Tess Morris-Suzuki, Professor of Japanese History, Australian National University
‘Barry Hill is blessed with the gifts of a fine essayist, historian, philosopher and poet. I know of no other writer who honours them with such audacious yet disciplined originality.’ Raimond Gaita, Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy, King's College London
‘An epic book of self-discovery and intellectual adventure that deserves to be read and re-read for its revelations. It’s a heartfelt book about the importance of peace and cultural understanding. Hill’s sense of humor, which is sharp and ironic, lightens up the narrative, especially when he’s recounting people he meets in India or what he sees on Indian television.’ Farisa Khalid, New York University, PopMatters
'A profoundly interesting book.’ Phillip Adams, Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
‘Peacemongers is not only a compelling literary quest, but a book of ethics for the coming times.’ Justin Clemens, Associate Professor, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne
‘In this tour de force he asks big questions and, in the process, rediscovers one of the great humanitarians of the 20th century. … His encounters along the way are highly amusing. ... [A] sprawling, sumptuous and fascinating new book.’ Courier-Mail
