Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Song Of Survival, Helen Colijn's account of her wartime experiences, is a window into a largely overlooked dimension of World War 2 -- the imprisonment of women and children in Southeast Asia by the Japanese and how these prisoners of war responded to their dire circumstances. Held in captivity for nearly four years, more then a third of the women in Helen's camp died of disease or starvation. Yet their courage, faith, resiliency, ingenuity, and camaraderie provide us with enduring lessons on living. Though they had no musical instruments, the women had their voices, and from memory scored classical works for symphony and piano to sing. The music that helped sustain them while in captivity is a lasting and precious gift from these women to a world that has witnessed far too much war. Helen's story reached a mass audience via the motion picture Paradise Road, which is based on the events chronicled in Song Of Survival.

Amazon.com Review:
Song of Survival provides a window into an often overlooked dimension of World War II--the imprisonment of women and children in Southeast Asia. It is Helen Colijn's memoir of the three and a half years she spent in a Japanese prison camp on the island of Java. Colijn and her family were living in the Dutch Indies when the Japanese army invaded. When her family's attempt to flee failed, Colijn ended up in one of the many Japanese internment camps for the duration of the war. The conditions were harsh, food was scarce, and medicine was unavailable, but the women who survived the starvation and disease somehow found the courage to persist. They found faith and resiliency in their comraderie with each other and in their voices. To help sustain them in their captivity, the women created music with lyrics expressing hope and the sentiment that the world has seen too much war. This moving account of extraordinary women inspired the film Paradise Road and should inspire its readers as well.

Rating : - A good read.
The book is entertaining, well written and easy to read. Don't be fooled by the title it is a book for men and women alike. My book club is currently reading this book and everyone that I've talked to is enjoying it.