The First Stone

Description

In the tradition of the great war novels of literature, Carsten Jensen's acclaimed novel takes the reader on a powerful and unforgettable journey into the heart of contemporary warfare. A platoon of young men and women enlist to fight in Afghanistan, driven by a desire for justice and a need to test themselves under extreme circumstances. Soon they face a challenge that no military training has prepared them for, and simple survival becomes their only mission. Foremost among them is Hannah, a tough young soldier whose dedication and ferocity convinces her fellow soldiers of the righteousness of their mission. Manipulated into committing acts of violence against their own allies, they become famous among Afghans as "Western jihadis." With American drones mysteriously shot down from the sky, the soldiers begin to realize they are pawns in an audacious experiment.

A leading literary figure in his native Denmark, Carsten Jensen is the author of the international bestseller We, the Drowned, which has sold more than half a million copies in twenty languages. As well as being an acclaimed novelist, essayist, newspaper columnist, and political commentator, Jensen has reported from war zones in the Balkans and Afghanistan. He has been awarded many prizes for fiction and nonfiction, including Denmark's coveted Golden Laurel for the travelogue I Have Seen the World Begin, and Sweden's prestigious Olof Palme Prize for his "work, in words and deed, to defend the weak and vulnerable in his own country as well as around the world."

"The First Stone offers taut depictions of war and a quasi-Shakespearean power struggle...Jensen's novel coldly depicts a region that remains stubbornly cast in Kipling's mold." -The New York Times "The sins mount page by page...A long, bloody tale that would do Soren Kierkegaard proud-if, that is, Kierkegaard had been a novelist...Jensen is unflinching in describing that mayhem as it figures in the real world of his novel...A grim examination of the effects of war on those who would give anything not to be waging it." -Kirkus Reviews