March 28, 2016
Parker’s debut novel is a gripping wartime story boldly and creatively told from the points of view of inanimate objects surrounding those involved in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. These includes bullets, guns, drones, bombs, wheelchairs, catheters, prosthetic limbs, and an oscillating saw used during amputations, each of which provides a unique piece of the overall experience of a British captain, Tom Barnes, and his team’s involvement in the complicated struggle abroad. Barnes’s story frequently intersects with that of two young men, Faridun and Latif, who were close friends growing up in the war zone but are now torn apart by differing allegiances to those actively fighting the “infidels” and those who seek to restore the peace. The narrative vacillates between wartime scenes and their aftermath; many of the most affecting sequences involve Barnes back at home with family and friends as he recovers from his experience at war and adjusts to the new circumstances of his life. The tragic deterioration of the friendship between Faridun and Latif during Barnes’s time at war is brutal and heartbreaking. Parker, a former soldier himself, is invested in expressing the particulars of war with surprising intimacy, and the unique structure with multiple viewpoints ultimately reveals harsh truths about the countless cogs in the machine of war. A particularly detailed amputation scene is deliberately wrenching, and Parker’s unflinching tone lends the novel its lasting power.