Description

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Hailed as a classic of war writing in the U.K., The Junior Officers' Reading Club is a revelatory first-hand account of a young enlistee's profound coming of age. Attempting to stave off the tedium and pressures of army life in the Iraqi desert by losing themselves in the dusty paperbacks on the transit-camp bookshelves, Hennessey and a handful of his pals from military academy form the Junior Officers' Reading Club. By the time he reaches Afghanistan and the rest of the club are scattered across the Middle East, they are no longer cheerfully overconfident young recruits, hungering for action and glory. Hennessey captures how boys grow into men amid the frenetic, sometimes exhilarating violence, frequent boredom, and almost overwhelming responsibilities that frame a soldier's experience and the way we fight today.

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About the Author

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Patrick Hennessey is a barrister and author who served in the British army from 2005 to 2009. Additionally, Hennessey worked as a special foreign correspondent for The Times (London) as well as the host of the BBC Two documentary Kipling’s Indian Adventures. His published works include The Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars and Kandak: Fighting with Afghans.