The Wounding Time

by Hussein Osman

In 2001, during the early stages of the Afghan conflict, a young British soldier, with nothing but 90 days training and a childhood behind him, dies in unexplained circumstances. Years later, his brother Jamie, who has been able to find closure, sets out to be where Matt was at the end of his life. He travels to Kabul. Why? He doesn't know, because he can't quite get his thoughts together, about the rumours of what Matt did while out there, and the way his life was taken away. Afghanistan is not, of course, a place for a young Brit to be getting his life together. There he meets Western mercenaries, members of the Taliban, befriends a lawyer in what is a lawless land, falls in love with an Afghan girl, sees death and dismemberment up close, and makes discoveries more about himself than about Matt. A remarkable book on loss and family, war and what it means to fight for your country in an age of individualism.

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2014