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A fast-paced, hard-hitting account of eight weeks in the lives of a soldier and her captor forces us to reconsider the simplistic narratives spun by those in power.

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WINNER OF THE WRITERS´ LEAGUE OF TEXAS FICTION AWARD 2017

It is the spring of 2003 and coalition forces are advancing on Iraq. Images of a giant statue of Saddam Hussein crashing to the ground in Baghdad are being beamed to news channels around the world. Nineteen-year-old Specialist Cassandra Wigheard, on her first deployment since joining the US army two years earlier, is primed for war.

For Abu al-Hool, a jihadist since the days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, war is wearing thin. Two decades of fighting have left him questioning his commitment to the struggle. When Cassandra is taken prisoner by al-Hool´s mujahideen brotherhood, both fighters will find their loyalties tested to the very limits.

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"A brilliantly written account of kidnap and conquest in the early years of the Iraq war." Justine Jordan Guardian, Books of the Year

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Brian Van Reet was born in Houston. Following the September 11 attacks, he dropped out of the University of Virginia and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in Iraq under stop-loss orders, achieved the rank of sergeant and was awarded a Bronze Star for valour. After an honourable discharge he studied at the University of Missouri and later the University of Texas. His stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Daily Beast and the Washington Post.

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