Daikon is thrilling! It kept me riveted to the very end. The fictional premise is “What if Japan got its hands on one U.S.-made atomic bomb and had to decide whether to use it or not against America?” Set against the backdrop of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese players struggle with moral, ethical, and very personal choices about the bomb and the crushing pressure of a ticking deadline. Military leaders with questionable agendas, a Korean soldier, the civilian physicist educated in the U.S. and his wife round out the robust cast of characters. Daikon, the code name for the radish-shaped bomb, is a deadly character all its own. A superb debut novel that took the South Korean author 27 years to complete.
Daikon by Samuel Hawley, (List Price: $29.99, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 9781668083055, 2025-07-08)
Reviewed by Patience Allan-Glick, Hills & Hamlets Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia