Japan 1945 As a conscripted surgeon travels to Manila days before the American invasion, he is engulfed by memories of the family and life he left back home as he attempts to make sense of a changing world. Through shipwrecks and surgery, his only recourse is to tell his stories to anyone who will listen amidst the desolation of history as it unfolds. Stories of his family back home in the north of Japan. Stories of the English spy living at the bottom of their garden. But most of all, stories of love and loss and life reclaimed. As the cold hand of war approaches, grasping all in its path, he must choose his own destiny and place in the new world. Based on a true story, A Scattering of Orphans offers a unique perspective through the eyes of a rural Japanese family into the impact of history's bloodiest war to date. A Scattering of Orphans is Thomas Alexander's first novel.