Torn

Rescued from the slush pile, this novel set in the current Afghanistan war proves indeed to be well worth publishing. Seen through the eyes of new British Army medic Elinor Nielson, it brings to vivid life the everyday detail of patrolling a country where few of the inhabitants actually want you to be. The opening chapters are particularly tense, and it is hard to think that any teenage reader would ever want to enlist in such an absurd war after reading them. The addition of a warning ghost plus Elinor’s growing feelings for a handsome American lieutenant bring things down a bit, but at its best this is excellent war writing, truthful, authoritative and utterly compelling.