Empty Casing: A Soldier's Memoir of Sarajevo Under Siege

by Fred Doucette

"A soldier's story told from the inside, passionate, riveting and extremely necessary." -- David Adams Richards, Giller Prize-winning novelist"Gut-wrenching, wryly humorous and well-written." -- Atlantic Books TodayWhen Canadian soldier Fred Doucette was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as a UN peacekeeper in 1995, he had a premonition that this tour of duty would be different. He had been posted to Cyprus in the 1970s and 1980s, but the horrors of the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s were beyond imagining.Doucette takes us to the heart of the conflict as the Bosnian Serb forces launch a massive, concerted assault. Sarajevo, the largely Muslim Bosnian capital, is devastated. Thousands of Sarajevans perish. UN forces, tasked with imposing and maintaining peace between the warring forces, realize this is an impossible task.Upon his return to Canada, Doucette begins his own war with posttraumatic stress disorder. Nightmares and flashbacks plague his days and nights. Traumatized and disoriented, he must learn to face himself, his family and his army once again. With raw emotion, Empty Casing tells the story of the making and unmaking of a soldier, and the growth of a man.

Kindle Edition

Published January 4, 2012