The great filmmaker Werner Herzog, in his first novel, tells the
incredible story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small
island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World
War II.
In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts asked
him, Whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda.
Onoda was a former soldier famous for having quixotically defended an
island in the Philippines for decades after World War II, unaware the
fighting was over. Herzog and Onoda developed an instant rapport and met
many times, talking and unraveling the story of Onoda's long war.
At the end of 1944 on Lubang Island, with Japanese troops about to
withdraw, Onoda stayed behind under orders from his superior officer.
For years, Onoda continued to fight his fictitious war--at first with
other soldiers, and then, finally, alone, a character in a novel of his
own making.
In The Twilight World, Herzog immortalizes and imagines Onoda's years
of absurd yet epic struggle in an inimitable, hypnotic style--part
documentary, part poem, and part dream--that will be instantly
recognizable to fans of his films. The result is a novel completely unto
itself: a glowing, dancing meditation on the purpose and meaning we give
our lives.
