The Watch

Second-Hand

Sticker residue on front cover otherwise excellent condition

A powerful and affecting novel imagining the inner turmoil of soldiers on a military base in Afghanistan, longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother's body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic or what she claims to be - a grieving sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites?

As she persists, single-minded in her mission, the camp's tense, claustrophobic atmosphere comes to a boil as the men argue about what to do next. The Watch takes an age-old story - the myth of Antigone - and hurls it into present-day Afghanistan.

The result is a gripping, deeply affecting book that brilliantly exposes the realities of war. It is also our most powerful expression to date of the nature and futility of this very contemporary conflict.