Author's note: 'Hostage is a novel, but the world it depicts, whether one likes it or not, is the real one, in which we all live. ...The descriptions in Chapter 5 are modelled on the classic account of the first nuclear attack made on a city, John Hersey's Hiroshima, which comprised the entire editorial content of the New Yorker on 31st August, 1946. Hence, the details, if unpleasant, at least have the merit of truth.'
