The sequel, in a fashion, to Empire of the Sun. Again elements of Ballard's life are fictionalized, continuing the life of young Jim following WWII and his life in England. There are threads of true biograhy twined in this fictionalized account: Ballard was widowed and raised three children by himself.

"Like much of J.G. Ballard's work, The Kindness of Women is a remarkable hybrid of autobiography and fiction. It is also a telling portrait of the postwar years, consistently penetrating in its insights and wide-ranging in its concerns and settings. It is, finally, a graphically honest yet surprisingly tender story of one man's extraordinary life, in which the kindnesses of women play an all-important role."

• comments from dustjacket of 1991 Farrar Straus Giroux edition