Sentí la mano de mi esposa Lena sobre la mía, pero ya era demasiado tarde. Había rehusado la invitación. Fue un paso en falso, tan estúpido y descomunal que todavía hoy me avergüenza. Todos los que estaban sentados a la mesa se quedaron petrificados. Nadie parecía respirar. Todas las miradas cayeron al suelo, se apartaron de mí, y un largo silencio congeló el ambiente. Pensé que, en ese instante, todo Japón contenía el aliento. Una voz rompió el silencio:

--¿A quién le gustaría conocer en Japón, entonces?
Sin pensarlo, dije:
--A Onoda.
¿Onoda? ¿Onoda?
--Sí --dije--, a Hiroo Onoda.
>ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The great filmmaker Werner Herzog in his first novel tells the incredible story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World War II.

In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts asked him, Whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda. Onoda was a former soldier famous for having quixotically defended an island in the Philippines for decades after World War II, unaware the fighting was over. Herzog and Onoda developed an instant rapport and met many times, talking and unraveling the story of Onoda's long war.

At the end of 1944 on Lubang Island, with Japanese troops about to withdraw, Onoda stayed behind under orders from his superior officer. For years, Onoda continued to fight his fictitious war--at first with other soldiers, and then, finally, alone, a character in a novel of his own making.

In The Twilight World, Herzog immortalizes and imagines Onoda's years of absurd yet epic struggle in an inimitable, hypnotic style--part documentary, part poem, and part dream--that will be instantly recognizable to fans of his films. The result is a novel completely unto itself: a glowing, dancing meditation on the purpose and meaning we give our lives.