Author: Chris Marnewick
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 1415203334
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
New Zealand was supposed to be where Pierre de Villiers would escape his past. A misadventure in Angola had cost him his faith in the military, and almost his life and sanity. Another event cost him his family. But no. After a bizarre attempt on the NZ Prime Minister’s life De Villiers recognises the arrow used: it is of Bushman origin. And suddenly he, now a policeman in Auckland, is a suspect. He must go back to South Africa for answers, and to face his demons. Can he unscramble his memory? Will he find the men who devastated his life? And will the illness mounting in his groin be cured? The Soldier Who Said No is about a man cast adrift in a sea of impossible choices. It is a gripping thriller set in a complex world of racism in unexpected places, and old injustices festering on both sides of a vast ocean.
The Soldier who Said No
Author: Chris Marnewick
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 1415203334
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
New Zealand was supposed to be where Pierre de Villiers would escape his past. A misadventure in Angola had cost him his faith in the military, and almost his life and sanity. Another event cost him his family. But no. After a bizarre attempt on the NZ Prime Minister’s life De Villiers recognises the arrow used: it is of Bushman origin. And suddenly he, now a policeman in Auckland, is a suspect. He must go back to South Africa for answers, and to face his demons. Can he unscramble his memory? Will he find the men who devastated his life? And will the illness mounting in his groin be cured? The Soldier Who Said No is about a man cast adrift in a sea of impossible choices. It is a gripping thriller set in a complex world of racism in unexpected places, and old injustices festering on both sides of a vast ocean.
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 1415203334
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
New Zealand was supposed to be where Pierre de Villiers would escape his past. A misadventure in Angola had cost him his faith in the military, and almost his life and sanity. Another event cost him his family. But no. After a bizarre attempt on the NZ Prime Minister’s life De Villiers recognises the arrow used: it is of Bushman origin. And suddenly he, now a policeman in Auckland, is a suspect. He must go back to South Africa for answers, and to face his demons. Can he unscramble his memory? Will he find the men who devastated his life? And will the illness mounting in his groin be cured? The Soldier Who Said No is about a man cast adrift in a sea of impossible choices. It is a gripping thriller set in a complex world of racism in unexpected places, and old injustices festering on both sides of a vast ocean.
We Germans
Author: Alexander Starritt
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316429791
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157
Book Description
WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE A letter from a German soldier to his grandson recounts the terrors of war on the Eastern Front, and a postwar ordinary life in search of atonement, in this “raw, visceral, and propulsive” novel (New York Times Book Review). A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice In the throes of the Second World War, young Meissner, a college student with dreams of becoming a scientist, is drafted into the German army and sent to the Eastern Front. But soon his regiment collapses in the face of the onslaught of the Red Army, hell-bent on revenge in its race to Berlin. Many decades later, now an old man reckoning with his past, Meissner pens a letter to his grandson explaining his actions, his guilt as a Nazi participator, and the difficulty of life after war. Found among his effects after his death, the letter is at once a thrilling story of adventure and a questing rumination on the moral ambiguity of war. In his years spent fighting the Russians and attempting afterward to survive the Gulag, Meissner recounts a life lived in perseverance and atonement. Wracked with shame—both for himself and for Germany—the grandfather explains his dark rationale, exults in the courage of others, and blurs the boundaries of right and wrong. We Germans complicates our most steadfast beliefs and seeks to account for the complicity of an entire country in the perpetration of heinous acts. In this breathless and page-turning story, Alexander Starritt also presents us with a deft exploration of the moral contradictions inherent in saving one's own life at the cost of the lives of others and asks whether we can ever truly atone.
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316429791
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157
Book Description
WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE A letter from a German soldier to his grandson recounts the terrors of war on the Eastern Front, and a postwar ordinary life in search of atonement, in this “raw, visceral, and propulsive” novel (New York Times Book Review). A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice In the throes of the Second World War, young Meissner, a college student with dreams of becoming a scientist, is drafted into the German army and sent to the Eastern Front. But soon his regiment collapses in the face of the onslaught of the Red Army, hell-bent on revenge in its race to Berlin. Many decades later, now an old man reckoning with his past, Meissner pens a letter to his grandson explaining his actions, his guilt as a Nazi participator, and the difficulty of life after war. Found among his effects after his death, the letter is at once a thrilling story of adventure and a questing rumination on the moral ambiguity of war. In his years spent fighting the Russians and attempting afterward to survive the Gulag, Meissner recounts a life lived in perseverance and atonement. Wracked with shame—both for himself and for Germany—the grandfather explains his dark rationale, exults in the courage of others, and blurs the boundaries of right and wrong. We Germans complicates our most steadfast beliefs and seeks to account for the complicity of an entire country in the perpetration of heinous acts. In this breathless and page-turning story, Alexander Starritt also presents us with a deft exploration of the moral contradictions inherent in saving one's own life at the cost of the lives of others and asks whether we can ever truly atone.
All for the King's Shilling
Author: Edward J Coss
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806185457
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806185457
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.
When Soldiers Say No
Author: Andrea Ellner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134763166
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
Traditionally few people challenged the distinction between absolute and selective conscientious objection by those being asked to carry out military duties. The former is an objection to fighting all wars - a position generally respected and accommodated by democratic states, while the latter is an objection to a specific war or conflict - theoretically and practically a much harder idea to accept and embrace for military institutions. However, a decade of conflict not clearly aligned to vital national interests combined with recent acts of selective conscientious objection by members of the military have led some to reappraise the situation and argue that selective conscientious objection ought to be legally recognised and permitted. Political, social and philosophical factors lie behind this new interest which together mean that the time is ripe for a fresh and thorough evaluation of the topic. This book brings together arguments for and against selective conscientious objection, as well as case studies examining how different countries deal with those who claim the status of selective conscientious objectors. As such, it sheds new light on a topic of increasing importance to those concerned with military ethics and public policy, within military institutions, government, and academia.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134763166
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
Traditionally few people challenged the distinction between absolute and selective conscientious objection by those being asked to carry out military duties. The former is an objection to fighting all wars - a position generally respected and accommodated by democratic states, while the latter is an objection to a specific war or conflict - theoretically and practically a much harder idea to accept and embrace for military institutions. However, a decade of conflict not clearly aligned to vital national interests combined with recent acts of selective conscientious objection by members of the military have led some to reappraise the situation and argue that selective conscientious objection ought to be legally recognised and permitted. Political, social and philosophical factors lie behind this new interest which together mean that the time is ripe for a fresh and thorough evaluation of the topic. This book brings together arguments for and against selective conscientious objection, as well as case studies examining how different countries deal with those who claim the status of selective conscientious objectors. As such, it sheds new light on a topic of increasing importance to those concerned with military ethics and public policy, within military institutions, government, and academia.
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell
Author: John Crawford
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101217391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches, a National Guardsman's account of the war in Iraq. John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition, willingly exchanging one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a free education. But in Autumn 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly married—in fact, on his honeymoon—he was called to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq. Crawford and his unit spent months upon months patrolling the streets of Baghdad, occupying a hostile city. During the breaks between patrols, Crawford began recording what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed and experienced. Those stories became The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell—a haunting and powerful, compellingly honest book that imparts the on-the-ground reality of waging the war in Iraq, and marks as the introduction of a mighty literary voice forged in the most intense of circumstances.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101217391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches, a National Guardsman's account of the war in Iraq. John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition, willingly exchanging one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a free education. But in Autumn 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly married—in fact, on his honeymoon—he was called to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq. Crawford and his unit spent months upon months patrolling the streets of Baghdad, occupying a hostile city. During the breaks between patrols, Crawford began recording what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed and experienced. Those stories became The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell—a haunting and powerful, compellingly honest book that imparts the on-the-ground reality of waging the war in Iraq, and marks as the introduction of a mighty literary voice forged in the most intense of circumstances.
WHEREAS
Author: Layli Long Soldier
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1555979610
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 121
Book Description
The astonishing, powerful debut by the winner of a 2016 Whiting Writers' Award WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces? Until a friend comforted, Don’t worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father’s language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands; I watch her be in multiple musics. —from “WHEREAS Statements” WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. “I am,” she writes, “a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation—and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.” This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1555979610
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 121
Book Description
The astonishing, powerful debut by the winner of a 2016 Whiting Writers' Award WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces? Until a friend comforted, Don’t worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father’s language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands; I watch her be in multiple musics. —from “WHEREAS Statements” WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. “I am,” she writes, “a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation—and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.” This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.
Leave No Man Behind
Author: George Galdorisi
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 9780760323922
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
The history of a near-century of combat search and rescue, with an account of how the discipline was created and how it is administered—or neglected—today.
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 9780760323922
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
The history of a near-century of combat search and rescue, with an account of how the discipline was created and how it is administered—or neglected—today.
Son of the Morning
Author: Mark Alder
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681770997
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 623
Book Description
England, 1337: Edward III is beset on all sides. He needs a victory against the French to rescue his throne, but he's outmanned. King Philip VI can put 50,000 men in the field, but he is having his own problems: he has sent his priests to summon the angels themselves to fight for France, but the angels refuse to fight, and Philip won't engage the battle without the backing of the angels.As England and France head toward certain war, Edward yearns for God's favor but as a usurper, can't help but worry—what if God truly is on the side of the French? Edward could call on Lucifer and open the gates of Hell and take an unholy war to France...for a price. Mark Adler breathes fresh and imaginative life into the Hundred Years War in this sweeping historical epic.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681770997
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 623
Book Description
England, 1337: Edward III is beset on all sides. He needs a victory against the French to rescue his throne, but he's outmanned. King Philip VI can put 50,000 men in the field, but he is having his own problems: he has sent his priests to summon the angels themselves to fight for France, but the angels refuse to fight, and Philip won't engage the battle without the backing of the angels.As England and France head toward certain war, Edward yearns for God's favor but as a usurper, can't help but worry—what if God truly is on the side of the French? Edward could call on Lucifer and open the gates of Hell and take an unholy war to France...for a price. Mark Adler breathes fresh and imaginative life into the Hundred Years War in this sweeping historical epic.
The Ten Granted Paradise
Author: Sayed Ammar Nakshawani
Publisher: Universal Muslim Association of America
ISBN: 0990374009
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Dr. Nakshawani in the following work not only corrects the widespread misconception that the Shi’i intellectual tradition despises and curses all Companions, but also clarifies the reason for which some Companions were considered people of Paradise in the Shi’i (and usually the Sunni) tradition. In a few places, the author notes reasons for which the Shi’i tradition does not venerate certain Companions. Discussing controversial history as it relates to Companions and the ahl al-bayt remains a difficult enterprise, where methods and premises, let alone conclusions, substantially differ from scholar to scholar. As an expert of the Shi’i tradition, Dr. Nakshawani presents relevant Shi’i narratives for non-specialists who would otherwise be unaware of them. Thus, the following biographies fill a gap in knowledge about Companions not only revered in the Shi’i tradition, but according to the collective memory of pro-Alid Sunni and Shi’i authors, granted Paradise.
Publisher: Universal Muslim Association of America
ISBN: 0990374009
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Dr. Nakshawani in the following work not only corrects the widespread misconception that the Shi’i intellectual tradition despises and curses all Companions, but also clarifies the reason for which some Companions were considered people of Paradise in the Shi’i (and usually the Sunni) tradition. In a few places, the author notes reasons for which the Shi’i tradition does not venerate certain Companions. Discussing controversial history as it relates to Companions and the ahl al-bayt remains a difficult enterprise, where methods and premises, let alone conclusions, substantially differ from scholar to scholar. As an expert of the Shi’i tradition, Dr. Nakshawani presents relevant Shi’i narratives for non-specialists who would otherwise be unaware of them. Thus, the following biographies fill a gap in knowledge about Companions not only revered in the Shi’i tradition, but according to the collective memory of pro-Alid Sunni and Shi’i authors, granted Paradise.
No Surrender Soldier
Author: Christine Kohler
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1440565627
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Growing up on Guam in 1972, fifteen-year-old Kiko is beset by worries: He's never kissed a girl, the popular guys get all the attention at school--but the worst part is the serious problems at home. His older brother is missing in Vietnam, his grandfather is losing it to dementia, and he just learned that his mother was raped by a Japanese soldier during World War II. It all comes together when he discovers an old man, a Japanese soldier, hiding in the jungle behind his house. It's not the same man who raped his mother, but, in his rage, Kiko cares only about protecting his family and avenging his mom--no matter what it takes. And so, a shy, peaceable boy begins to plan a murder. But how far will Kiko go to prove to himself that he's a man? Based on a true incident in history, No Surrender Soldier is the story of a boy grappling with ancient questions of courage and manhood before he can move on.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1440565627
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Growing up on Guam in 1972, fifteen-year-old Kiko is beset by worries: He's never kissed a girl, the popular guys get all the attention at school--but the worst part is the serious problems at home. His older brother is missing in Vietnam, his grandfather is losing it to dementia, and he just learned that his mother was raped by a Japanese soldier during World War II. It all comes together when he discovers an old man, a Japanese soldier, hiding in the jungle behind his house. It's not the same man who raped his mother, but, in his rage, Kiko cares only about protecting his family and avenging his mom--no matter what it takes. And so, a shy, peaceable boy begins to plan a murder. But how far will Kiko go to prove to himself that he's a man? Based on a true incident in history, No Surrender Soldier is the story of a boy grappling with ancient questions of courage and manhood before he can move on.