title: The Heat of the Sun: A Novel
author:  David Rain 
description: What happened to the characters in Puccinis opera Madama Butterfly after Cio-Cio-Sans suicide? Australian author Rain imagines some answers in his first novel. For starters, Pinkerton is now a powerful U.S. senator. His wife, Kate, is an minence grise, and his illegitimate son, Trouble, is now a student at a private school. There he is befriended by the novels narrator, a boy named Woodley Sharpless, whose late father had been the U.S. consul in Nagasaki when Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-San were an item. Other characters from the opera make at least cameo appearances as well. There are two main themes to the ensuing story: one is the story of the lifelong, and occasionally troubled, friendship of Woodley and Trouble; the second is Japan during the 1930s and early 40s as seen through the eyes of the two friends. Though occasionally frustrating in the opaqueness of the many characters relationships and of unresolved plot points, Rains novel is dramatic, even operatic, and an engaging read, especially for opera buffs. --Michael Cart
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  Copyright © 1978 by Larry Cohen  
  All rights reserved.  
    
  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random
  House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Ballantine Books of
  Canada, Ltd., Toronto, Canada.  
    
  ISBN 0-345-27693-0  
  First printed June 1978
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![RRT_release](../Images/RRT_release.png)  
  [**RetroReadingTime.com**](http://retroreadingtime.com)
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![ItLivesAgain_cover](../Images/ItLivesAgain_cover.png)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  ![ItLivesAgain_title](../Images/ItLivesAgain_title.png)  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ### By  
   **James Dixon**  
    
  Based on the Screenplay written by  
   **Larry Cohen**  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  ![BallantineBooks_logo](../Images/BallantineBooks_logo.png)  
  BALLANTINE BOOKS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  # ONE
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  It was July. Tucson, Arizona. Beautiful skies. A city of almost perpetual
  sunshine where one beautiful day follows another. A place where people
  vacation in order to escape the winters or the 