John Hersey, a WWII correspondent of considerable literate as well as journalistic abilities, explores the question of survivors in this book of eight short stories. He interviews returning servicemen who have been through traumas, Holocaust survivors, Kennedy's PT boat survivors, and survivors of Hiroshima to see if there was some special quality that had made them survivors. The most outstanding story for me was Joe is Home Now, a tale of a returning soldier who has lost an arm and is full of anger and nightmares of the war. He returns to his old community and tries to adjust, but though people are kind, he seems destined to end up an alienated alcoholic. Enter Mary, his old girlfriend, and we see the restorative power of a woman who has faith in the man she loves--and we have a survivor. Throughout the book there seems to be as many different answers to what makes a survivor as there are stories. It makes for interesting reading and reflection. ( )