The Falling Sun - a novel by Dylan Day
A Creative (Provisional) Trailer, The Falling Sun
They Came for Freedom
1910. A stowaway and a dreamer migrate from Japan to the Land of Opportunity in the hope of a better life.
They Found a Battlefield
The couple are put to work on a brutal Californian farm, where obsession and contempt dictate the way of life.
The Land Took its Toll
When the couple are dishonoured, they must decide whether they wish to stay and be beaten by the West, or flee and admit their dream failed.
The Falling Sun
Dylan Day's The Falling Sun is an Upmarket Historical Fiction that blends expressive character studies with action for a heart-racing, yet tender and insightful epic.
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The Falling Sun is perfect for fans of classic Westerns (both films and novels, like Edna Ferber's Giant) and the master storyteller Ken Follett, who, along with Charles Dickens, are great influences to Dylan Day.
The Falling Sun:
Synopsis
1910. In search of the American Dream, stowaways Tenshi and Hamata flee Japan and find work on a Californian farm owned by the enigmatic Mr. Friston, hoping one day to claim a ranch of their own. But the promise of opportunity quickly turns brutal as xenophobia, exploitation, and violence seep into every corner of their new life.
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Targeted by a rising anti-Japanese movement and terrorised by a ruthless foreman with dangerous intentions, the couple struggle to survive as rumours swirl, workers revolt, and the farm itself begins to crumble. When tragedy strikes and revenge becomes inevitable, loyalties are tested and a single choice will decide who survives — and who pays the ultimate price.
The Falling Sun is a novel by Dylan Day, and the second instalment of The Falling Sun trilogy, a collection which explores the fates of a Japanese couple coming to America, and then life inside a Japanese American incarceration camp during World War Two. Please see Those Who Must Fall for more information on book one.
The idea began as a short story about a detective who had to investigate a derelict warehouse. That, merged with an accidental discovery on Wikipedia about Japanese-American Incarceration Camps in the United States, an interest in Japanese culture, and a love for Western movies, gave birth to this, an historical epic that can be best described as John Steinbeck meets Ken Follett.
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Japanese American incarceration is an important research topic for the author, Dylan Day. He has previously written two essays on the subject: To Investigate How US Citizenship was Performed by Japanese Americans Interned at Tule Lake Incarceration Camp During World War Two as a Consequence of the Loyalty Questionnaire & An examination as to whether incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War Two was an act of defence or a declaration of particular prejudice.
The Falling Sun is set in and around San Francisco and Stockton, California, 1910, in the fading days of the American West, a time of conflict as the New World and the Old World collided.
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The Falling Sun is about how the Old World clung on to beyond its dignity - personified in Mr. Friston, the proprietor of Friston Farm. It investigates the contradiction of the civilised, innovated world with the brutal xenophobia of the so-called Land of Opportunity, "which makes every man equal". A time when cults like the Ku Klux Klan and the Native Sons of the Golden West, an anti-Asian group, terrorised the ethnic communities.
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The Falling Sun uses the backdrop of the California Alien Land law of 1913, where Japanese immigrants were prohibited from purchasing land, to convey how the American Dream wasn't possible for everyone.
Theme Song
One day The Falling Sun will not only be a successful novel but also a TV series. So, my very talented sister (Sommer-Rose) composed me a theme song. Have a listen.