Anatomy of a Soldier

A stunning first novel--of patriotism, heroism, and profound humanism--that will immediately take its place on the shelf of classics about what it truly means to be at war.

Captain Tom Barnes, leading British troops in the war zone. Two boys growing up there sharing a prized bicycle and flying kites before finding themselves estranged once foreign soldiers appear in their countryside. The man who trains one boy to fight the other's father as well as the infidel invaders. The family and friends who radiate out from these lives on all sides of this conflict. These are the people who populate this fiercely dramatic and moving novel. But we see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do: shoes and boots, a helmet, a trove of dollars, a drone, that bike, weaponry, a bag of fertilizer, a medal, a beer glass, a snowflake, dog tags, an improvised explosive device--forty-five different inanimate narrators whose unexpected voices tell the story of this heart-stopping journey. Anatomy of a Soldier gives us a way to clearly see and understand those who fight wars in ways we never have before.