The Last War

by Ana Menéndez

A breathtaking novel of love, war, and betrayal

Flash, a photojournalist, chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq, awaiting her arrival. Yet instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering.

Losing herself in a fog of memory and recrimination, Flash ponders her life with the ambitious and handsome husband she calls "Wonderboy." Her malaise is compounded by the arrival of a mysterious letter informing her that Brando has been unfaithful to her in Baghdad. Devastated and unwilling to confront him over the phone, Flash spirals deeper into regret, anger, and indecision. Were she and Brando ever happy?

Wandering the strange, shimmering streets of Istanbul, Flash is followed by a woman in a black abaya—Alexandra, a fierce and captivating colleague who shared dangerous days with the couple in Afghanistan. Their meeting rekindles long-buried secrets and forces Flash to face hard truths about her marriage, her husband, and herself. The Last War is a haunting and intense novel that reveals the personal costs of combat journalism while probing crucial questions of cruelty and violence, love and identity.

Genres: Fiction, Travel, Middle East

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2009

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certain sorts of people are attracted to the life and death workplace that is the war zone. For some it is mother’s milk to survive in the midst of death, whether as a combatant, NGO-er like Red Cross or MSF field personnel, or as a journalist. It can act as a drug, making one feel more alive than the hum-drum of a stable home with 2.5 kids and a spouse, in the same environment every day. The 2008 film, The Hurt Locker, captures that well. For good or ill, some need the rush of adventure, excitement, danger. Ana Menendez’ novel, The Last War, tells of the impact of that addiction on a marriage. Being apart can cause a huge strain, but never knowing if the next phone call will be to inform you of your spouse’s death can be too much for any relationship to bear. She writes from experience.


Ana Menendez

The Last War seems to be a memoir, thinly veiled as a novel, about the demise of Menendez’s marriage to New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins. It is an effective telling, well written, interesting. If you read Filkins’ recent, excellent book, The Forever War—and if you haven’t, consider yourself scolded—you will have a sense of the life he was drawn to. In that book he paints a compelling portrait of contemporary warfare, but omits a lot about his personal affairs. Menendez writes about the other side of that life, what happens to the one left behind, telling some tales about hubby’s theoretical extracurricular activities and the effects they had on his home and hearth. It is a beautifully written, engaging and rather sad tale in which her main character receives an anonymous letter informing her of her husband’s infidelity while covering the war in Iraq.

One might expect that the husband, here dubbed Wonderboy, would come off badly, a bit of revenge lit perhaps. But that is not the case. Menendez writes about the strain of that life on a marriage, about what it is to live a semi-nomadic existence, when all the world is one’s home, but there is not really any one place where you always hang your hat. And coping with the disaffection for the quotidian experienced not only by Wonderboy, but by Margarita, Menendez’s avatar, who is positioned here as a war photographer. Can the rootless ever put down roots? Or are they condemned to constantly roll with the wind, tumbleweed-style, always at war with boredom? And it is not only Wonderboy who has chosen a wandering life. Margarita has made the same choice, in response to similar needs. Such choices can kill, not just bodies, but spirits, and certainly marriages.

The Last War is a very good read and a very worthwhile companion read to The Forever War . Do read both. You won’t regret it.


=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal and Twitter pages

[reading is my hustle]

I really found this to be a stifling and fuggy "novel." It reads like a memoir (which I suspect it is) and for this I could not settle into the story. I had little patience for Flash who is pining away for an ambivalent husband. She is lonesome and depressed but instead of feeling empathy for her I felt annoyed by her inertia. Just glad to be done with it.

[Asya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why is it so much easier to ravel a story than unravel it? Great build up, initial suspense, tension, intrigue, alluring and appealingly mopey characters, and then, somewhere just over the hill it all goes to pot, or rather goes nowhere. This is one of those static books. It begins with the main character and narrator, a depressed and bewildered photographer "Flash" sulking in her Istanbul flat while her husband "Wonderboy," blissfully ignorant of her blues, covers the war in Iraq from Baghdad. And guess what, come the end of the novel, Flash is still working through her very static crisis and Wonderboy, is, well, not to spoil the ending, but something does happen to him, only this "event" is so minimized it hardly counts and the book slips down a notch or two and dwindles to its lackluster conclusion. Menendez writes well, lyrically, meditatively (though I have to confess not "getting" these meditations because they often come out of context and too brief to be meaningful), but has trouble keeping the tension in the plot. And a detail kept bothering me - why would a western journalist who prides herself on going local wherever she's posted insist on wearing a black abaya in Istanbul of all places? I mean, who wears a black abaya in Istanbul? Not even the neo-fundamentalists, chic in their satin and silk spring print headscarves. So...?

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually when I finish a book, I think about whether I liked the plot or the characters or what not. This was one time where what really stood out was the writing. I thought that this book was beautifully written.

The main character, Flash, is a photographer who makes her living covering wars with her journalist husband, Brando. The novel in set in 2003, and Brando is in Iraq. Meanwhile, Flash is in Istanbul ostensibly waiting for her papers to come through so she can join him. Other than a mysterious letter arriving, not much happens in the novel except Flash living in Istanbul and considering her marriage.

I love introspective stuff like this. I love being a voyeur in someone's inner life.

Anyway. Some minor things I didn't like:
1) I thought the phrase "I poured myself a glass of wine" was way overused. And that's taking into account the fact that a) I get the wine-drinking was a key characterization thing and b) I love wine.
2) I didn't like all the nicknames. Flash, Tunes, Wonderboy. Eh. Something about them just rubbed me the wrong way.
3) I found the flashbacks to Afghanistan confusing and sort of annoying. Also, I didn't believe that Flash would really do a thing that I will not name for fear of spoiling the plot.

[سارة سمير · Rating 4 out of 5]

انتهيت من قرائتها حالا ... لا اعلم كيف اصفها ... هل هى جيده ام سئيه .. هل هى ممله ام مشوقه ... كل ما اعلمه انى تعلمت منها درس واحد فقط .. انه عندما تتاح لنا الفرصه لنعبر لمن نحبهم عن حبنا الا نضيعها لانه ربما لن تأتى تلك الفرصه مره اخرى .. عندما تأتى امامنا فرصه ان نضحى بشئ من اجل من نحب او نترك شئ نحبه من اجل التواجد معهم لا نضيعها ابدا ... نهايه مؤلمه كثيرا ولا اعلم كيف بكل قوة تحملتها البطله التى فى ظنى هى ذات قلب قاس .. وفعلا لم تبال بأنه يحبها او لم تفهم جيدا هذا الحب كل ما كانت تنظر اليه هو نفسها فقط وليس احدا اخر كل ما كان يهمها اين هى فى الحياه وماذا تفعل تريد ان تكون تحت الاضواء دائما .. لا اعلم ولكن لا اتمنى من نفسى او من اى احد ان يصبح هكذا حتى لا تكون نهايته مثل نهايتها

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fast read. I finished it in a few hours. The story is about a couple in which the husband writes and the wife does the photography. For their entire marriage they are capturing different wars. By the time the reader meets them the husband is in Iraq and he wife is in Istanbul awaiting a visa to join him. She gets a weird letter from someone she doesn't know telling her that her husband is cheating on her. And the rest of the story is her unraveling and trying to decide whether to leave him or not or decide whether she actually ever loved him in the first place.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book caught my attention on Firstreads and I was lucky enough to win it, but actually found it disappointing. I kept waiting for the plot to develop, only to get to the end frustrated that I had spent the time looking for something big to happen that never did. In my opinion this book was about depression and misplaced love, not war and romance and photography. I found the environments exciting and loved to learn about the exotic places Flash went. I hated the nicknames...Flash and Wonderboy.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ana‘s pros is haunting and beautiful, and you do get the sense of being a drift in life through her flashbacks and imagery. Halfway through the book, however the story started to meander and I didn’t get the sense of closure that I need in a work of fiction.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written

[Nancy Korb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth the read or money spent on it. "Our life together was defined by writing, food, and travel, and so was the end of that life."

[mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE LAST WAR is my favorite type of novel--it is like a dream, a painting, a photograph--provoking thought, beauty, and doubt. The prose is beautiful, impelling the mind to see and the heart to feel. The dialogue is such that it could be our own--if it were we in the place of the characters, if we had their wishes and fears. There is much more here than words on a page. There is a backstory intertwined with the creator. This type of novel is an author's attempt to make sense out of life, or at least explain it. Sometimes, as in a dream, a novel reveals the world as we wished it were, or had been.

The Last War appears to me to be Ana Menendez's dream. Her ex-husband is Dexter Filkins and his latest work, non-fiction, is THE FOREVER WAR, about the war in Iraq where he was an embedded reporter for the NY Times, with the Marines in the battle of Fallujah. In The LAST WAR, the narrator is the wife of "Wonderboy," a war correspondent in Iraq. "Flash," the narrator and a photojournalist, lives in Istanbul and becomes bitter and resentful of her husband after receiving an anonymous letter that he had been unfaithful. (The part about the letter happened in the real world.) There is a third character, a writer and a beauty, a "friend" of Flash, who acts as her inner voice, confidante, and rival. What ensues is the deterioration of the marriage, due largely to the failure of the couple to communicate honestly and well; the "help" of the friend; and the competition between the couple for gratification and appreciation. The author, Menendez, covers all the bases, and that could be nothing other than a reflection of the way things were. In one conversation, Wonderboy calls Flash in a hysterical state, having just escaped death while on patrol. Flash, consumed with his alleged infidelity, can’t listen or support him, and they talk over and scream at one another, without compassion or understanding, each accusing the other of being “delirious.” (pg. 157)

In the real lives of the two authors, I wonder: What was that conversation like? Filkins did escape death when a US Marine stepped in front of him, took a bullet, and died. Is the fiction the way it went down? Is it Menendez’s version? Recollection, rationalization, or dream? For the sake of art, it doesn’t matter. It works. Filkins, it has been reported, armed himself, effectively becoming a fighter, a soldier, a warrior. A repeated “theme” in THE LAST WAR is: “The warrior always triumphs over the poet.” In Menendez’s “dream” - a roadside bomb kills Wonderboy, and Flash goes on towards a successful career. (Take that! Dexter. “Revenge is for Life.” That comes from the Koran and is used in both books, recounting the same event—an execution in Afghanistan in 1998 that the couple witnessed together.) However, in the real world, Filkins is by far the more successful and acclaimed writer. It is worth noting that Menendez writes fiction because she felt two journalists in a marriage would not work. (She began her career as a war correspondent, also.) So much for deference to bolster love and marriage.

This is tragic story, both of them, all of them. Yet, war is still glorified. There is all this pain lying beneath the surface, covered up by bravado, hubris, competition, and striving for recognition, achievement. War shouts “Be somebody!” Christopher Hedges’ fine book, WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING is apropos.

I watched an interview with Filkins (http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...#) and he says pointblank that war is thrilling and fun. His joy in being able to participate is unmistakable. He says in Forever War: “I told him [another American reporter:] I couldn’t have a conversation with anyone who hadn’t been there about anything at all.” (pg. 341) That comes through in the above mentioned dialogue in Menendez’s novel. There is resentment visible in Menendez, in her writing and an interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNe95A...) of men getting all the fun and glory, and her sacrifices for that end. She looks at this in the novel – through conversations between the two girlfriends.


This is a remarkable, layered work. I sense it is about the other kind of wars—the wars within and between the sexes. Maybe that is what all war is ultimately about—sex. The last words written by Filkins in THE FOREVER WAR: “I lost the person I cared for most. The war didn’t get her, it got me.” (pg.346) Truth or fiction? I don’t know … but I can still see him smiling in the interview. I can still see Menendez, too, smiling.

[Becky R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thoroughly, and utterly enthralled with The Last War from the first page or two, until the end. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was NOT a story about the Iraq war, about a war correspondent, nor a story to reveal the culture of the Middle East; rather, this novel was a human drama, played out in far-flung locations that added an extra depth to the novel.

Having spent time in Istanbul, I readily picked up on the locations and streets mentioned by Flash (as the author had spent time there as well). I could see the tram she rode, as well as the views across the Bosphorus. In a city as charming as Istanbul, there really isn't a way for the book to continue without the city being another main character in the novel, and it definitely was for Flash. The days she spent wandering, questioning her life and marriage, and facing her fears about both, were played out in a city of as much grace, charm, and wonder as you could situate a main character within.

In the end, the drama of the novel was about Flash and her husband Brando. Over time, we learn that her marriage had troubles, and we learn more about the time the two spent in Afghanistan, which left Flash somewhat traumatized. Stories of the past come in to haunt her, just as the war is in Iraq is haunting her husband Brando. The interweaving of trauma and love made for a gripping novel, and one that I absolutely couldn't wait to pick up reading each day. I really and genuinely think that Ana Menendez's novel, The Last War is a brilliant juxtaposition of the complexity of human lives to that of international conflict. While not the "war" story that some readers might have been looking for, I found the implied backdrop of the Iraq war and conflict in the Middle East to be the perfect foil for Flash's own personal issues. The novel was simply brilliant in my mind, and one that has left me thinking about and considering for days after I finished it. What more can I say than an absolutely brilliant read in my opinion.

[ccqdesigns · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Goodreads (thank you so much) and was very interested since I had been an expat myself and lived in several countries overseas. The Last War states it is “a breathtaking novel of love, war and betrayal”. Flash is a photographer and is married to Wonderboy, a journalist. They both cover war stories, sometimes together and sometimes apart. At the beginning of the book, Flash is in Istanbul and Brando (wonderboy) is in Iraq. Flash is waiting for a visa to join him but really has little intention of joining him. Most of the book is Flash’s thoughts, depression, street wanderings and indulgences. She receives a letter that tells her Brando has been unfaithful which feeds her depression and inward focus.

There is some minor coverage of the wars, bombings, but it is very minor. There is some description of the towns, cities and countries they are traveling in, but again that is mostly minor. The story line reads a little like a soap opera. I felt like Flash is very self indulgent and being able to spend many months in a nice apartment in Istanbul without having to work or actually do anything seems unrealistic.

With all my travels and time spent as an expat, none of the story line rang true to me. Granted, I was not a journalist, but I did live and work in many foreign countries. There are parts of the story line that seem to be going somewhere, and then it fizzles and never really grabs me. I see glimpses of greatness but mostly just find average writing.

Maybe for someone that has never traveled the experience would be different. The Last War could have benefited from some great editing and additional details of the environment.

This book would be a good read for someone that is interested in the subjects of depression, inner reflection and love lost. It doesn’t, in my opinion, live up to its hype of “a breathtaking novel of love, war and betrayal”.

[Lydia Presley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I spent a good thirty minutes trying to think of ways to begin this review. The biggest challenge stems, as always, from my opinion of the book; an opinion that's torn.

On one hand I can appreciate the story being told; the story of a broken marriage, a woman used to peering into the lives of others and having to, ultimately, examine herself with that lens. There's a touch of mystery, did "Wonderboy" cheat or did he not cheat? Who wrote that damning letter? Did the letter actually affect the already strained relationship between "Flash" and "Wonderboy" or was it broken beyond repair before it appeared?

Then, on the other hand, I wanted to reach into the book and just slap some sense into the selfish bitch that was "Flash". As a privileged American I took the rebukes of the author to heart; yes, I get that war and famine and death is happening around the world and I get that, honestly, it does not affect my daily life. Sure I can pray about it - but I am not different than the majority of Americans out there going to work and play without much thought spared toward the hardships of those around the globe. But "Flash" didn't seem to learn any of this ... in fact, I didn't see that she learned much of anything at all except maybe not to judge without speaking to the individual first.

What it all boiled down to was that, for me, this was not a good read. I had to force myself through the last half of it and in fact enjoyed the "About the Author" more than I did the story itself. The Author wrote her "About me" section talking about the preparation of food and the comfort that simple alchemy can give. That I could relate to, more than anything she had written about "Flash".

I'm not going to steer you away from this book; I don't know enough about your lifestyle to know if it would help you or not. I'm just here to tell you that this was a book that evoked some strong reactions in me; some of which were not good.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my book review blog, Rundpinne....[return][return]Beautifully written, spellbinding, and astonishingly detailed, The Last War by Ana Menendez is a compelling literary novel. Menendez takes the reader on an introspective journey through the last ten years of her life, taking the reader back to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and where she currently resides in Istanbul. Margarita Anastasia Morales, known as Flash, is a photographer who has been traveling around the world with her journalist husband, Brando Price Phillips. The couple currently resides in Istanbul where Flash is still awaiting the proper paperwork to join Brando in Iraq to cover the war. While waiting for the appropriate paperwork, a mysterious letter arrives making Flash question the last ten years of her life with Brando. Menendez smoothly takes the reader through Flash’s memories, covering various wars in numerous cities around the world, and with fluid and vivid imagery, it is not difficult for the reader to experience the sights through Flash’s memory. I truly enjoyed this beautifully rich, detailed and deeply introspective novel of love, war and identity. I would not hesitate to recommend The Last War to anyone and believe that The Last War, with the inter-relationships between Alexandra, Flash, Brando and Nadia, would make for an exceptional discussion group pick.

[Paula Koneazny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another novel abandoned out of boredom. I found the characters and their predicaments unconvincing either in terms of a novel or those of "real" life. Even the female protagonist's penchant for red wine (good Bordeaux or cheap domestic Turkish), although plausible on the face of it, didn't read as "true." And the nicknames, Flash for the female photographer and Wonderboy for her war correspondent boyfriend. Ugh!
The second star is due to one interesting passage regarding language: "Turkish, Alif had tried to explain to me again and again, has no free-standing prepositions, instead deploying an army of infixes and suffixes that make for an ever-mutating dictionary. Nearly every word is transformed by its relationship to every other word. It's a hard lesson for an English speaker to grasp. The world informed by Turkish syntax is not the English one, where solitary objects move through the sentence with little cause or effect. Turkish exists in a webbed landscape where relationships carry meaning and every noun is malleable." I might dispute the notion that English is a language of "solitary objects" but this passage at least piqued my interest.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes authors write books as a way to receive some psychotherapy. Lots of "life stuff" can lead a person to step outside of the self, evaluate what's not kosher and acknowledge some hard truths. I believe Ana Menendez did this in The Last War. She needed the therapy and writing it was the best way to get there.

Sometimes these types of books are a curative for people who also need this therapy but are better readers than writers. That's me (despite my desire to be the latter). I guess what I took away from this book was mostly that I need to stop acting the wronged martyr. It doesn't help with the "life goes on" strategy of living. Plus, I suspect that people have started thinking that this woe-is-me attitude is pathetic, that I'm pathetic. And, I don't want to be pathetic. I want to be the strong woman that overcame some difficulties and learned how to be self-honest. That's what I saw here in this book. Quite a grand life lesson in 200-odd pages.

I also learned that really cheap red wine probably causes migraines. Don't do it--buy the good stuff.

[Kasey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at random from the library. The setting was interesting and the writing was good but lots of f-bombs. I read the first half really quick, anxious to see what would happen. I must admit the heroine started to annoy me and I wished she would actually do something instead of mull around feeling sorry for herself. There were twists that made it good. In the end though I can't say I really liked the book too much. It must be my old age but I'm starting to prefer the escapism of simple old books with happy endings and well- developed likable characters rather than self-important books that seem to wow you with their pretty packaging but lack depth and substance underneath. Sometimes I feel like so-called literary books are more concerned with the form and the language instead of telling a satisfying rich story.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably read this on the suggestion of NPR. I can't really remember.

This novel was very melancholy, about a photojournalist and her print journalist husband in the early years of the Afghan and Iraq wars. They are separated throughout the novel, with the suspicion of an affair by the husband looming over the main character's musings.

It wasn't the worst novel I've read. I actually finished it. But I never connected with the main character and I was bored with her self-absorbed sorrow.

I'm sure the author was trying for some deep juxtaposition between the grim realities of war versus the uncertainty of a troubled marriage, but I just never cared that much.

I won't seek out other novels by this author.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the fact that the author knew her way around Istanbul. I didn't like that every page she was self medicating with wine and just relaxing. It was also hard to follow the plot as it would go backward and forward with no visible dates to let the reader know if it was a flashback.

I expected the photojournalist character to have a vision or to discover and confront what was wrong with her life. I don't really think the author summed up the problem. She just let the husband journalist die before a confrontation could happen.

So I was slightly disappointed with no resolution, but that of the secondary character dying. Also I think it was strange how she first introduced her friend Alexandria and then flashed back to their many encounters.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mesmerizing. It pulls you in deeper and deeper - just like a dream you cannot wake up from. So much of this novel is dream-like - the writing style, switching back & forth, characters showing up out of virtually nowhere, weird conversations.

What is it about? - how a photographer living in Istanbul is dealing with the dissolution of her marriage, while her journalist husband is in Kabul covering the Iraq war. During this time, she "runs" into a friend she last saw in Afghanistan. This friend does radio broadcasting, goes around Istanbul in a traditional burka, and can play devil's advocate. All characters are expatriates chasing war around the world to report on it.

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has some great things going for it. The writing is really good, and I could tell the author really knew the places she was writing about and did it with grace not with flash (excused the pun!), and I appreciated that. But the relationship elements felt more contrived to me even though I read this story is based on true events. But the developments of the affair in the novel just didn't feel real, or at least not real enough for me to care, and I didn't get much sense of the love between the couple before they fell apart. I'd recommend it, because it does take you out of the norm to read about interesting characters in interesting locales, but the plot just didn't do it for me.

[Ellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another first-reads win! The story is set against the backdrop of the U.S. invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, but mostly takes place in Istanbul. The main character, Flash, is a photojournalist married to Brando, a journalist; both cover wars around the world. The couple has a residence in Istanbul and when Brando reports to Iraq, Flash stays behind for reasons unknown to her. When she receives a letter about her husband's infidelity, she begins to reflect on their past. Told in part in flashbacks, I found the chronology a bit confusing at times. Also, the writing was thin.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this as a First Reads giveaway. It was an interesting look into the lives of war correspondents and journalists, and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the settings where the book took place. However, as other reviewers have noted I kept waiting for something "big" to happen, and I'm still unsure what the book was really about. This was a pretty short book (225 p.) that I should have been able to finish in a weekend, but I never felt that I really got pulled in and it took me a while to finish.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very intriguing mystery set in the gorgeous city of Istanbul. An american photojurounalist questions her marriage in Istanbul while her husband is covering the war in Iraq, with the help of a myseterious letter. This reads almost like a biography by with more detail. The story goes back and forth in time to explain events that Flash is trying to make connections with the current outcome of her relationships. This is a quick end of the summer read that will make you want to plan your next vacation to Istanbul.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I liked it, but I keep finding myself wondering if other people would like it. It is not the "type" of book that I would normally be drawn to, but I was very impressed with the author. I liked the writing style and I was sucked in right away. It's a short book but I finished it in less than 24 hours, which is not typical for me. Suzanne I think you might like it.

[Meri · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was nothing that really stood out about this novel except its interesting look into the community of war correspondents. I always wondered what drives someone to do that. I also identified with Flash's frustration--it would be hard to struggle with depression with a war correspondent for a husband. I can see why individual internal struggles seem like a luxury to someone who watches entire families devastated by war, though they are certainly not.

[Colleen Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, set in Istanbul, is about a journalist whose husband is a correspondent in Iraq during the first part of the war there. After I read it with pleasure and interest I learned from a book review that Menedez is the former wife of the journalist Dexter Filkins. He wrote an excellent account of the war in Iraq entitled "The Forever War." He had been in Afghanistan before that and is now in Afghanistan again reporting for the NY Times. So that gave this novel even more interest.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda beautiful but also kinda too much navel-gazing with unresolved plots. I would have liked to have the time in Afghanistan expanded upon - those sections were written with such vigor compared to the listlessness mimicking the protagonist's restlessness whilst in Istanbul.

The end was too quick and without a true resolution. Like life, I suppose, but this isn't life - it's a paperback novel.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a little difficult to get into at first, but once I got my stride, I really enjoyed it. I love the exotic setting, and it was very interesting. The only thing that was wrong with it was the slow beginning. Otherwise, a very well-written book with a unique storyline.