Outside the Wire
The War in Afghanistan in the Words of Its Participants
Published on 25. June 2010
320 pages
978-0-307-37085-3 (ISBN)
Description
A remarkable collection of first-hand accounts written by soldiers, doctors and aid workers on the front lines of Canada's war in Afghanistan.
Visceral, intimate and captivating in ways no other telling could be, Outside the Wire features nearly two dozen stories by Canadians on the front lines in Afghanistan, including the previously unpublished letters home of Captain Nichola Goddard, the first female NATO soldier killed in combat, and an introductory reflection by Roméo Dallaire.
Collected here are stories of battle and the more subtle engagements of this little-understood war: the tearful farewells; the shock of immersion into a culture that has been at war for thirty years; looking a suicide bomber in the eye the moment before he strikes; grappling with mortality in the Kandahar Field Hospital; and the unexpected humour that leavens life in a warzone. Throughout each piece the passion of those engaged in rebuilding this shattered country shines through, a glimmer of optimism and determination so rare in multinational military actions-and so particularly Canadian.
In Outside the Wire, award-winning author Kevin Patterson and co-editor Jane Warren have rediscovered the valour and horror of sacrifice in this, the definitive account of the modern Canadian experience of war.
Visceral, intimate and captivating in ways no other telling could be, Outside the Wire features nearly two dozen stories by Canadians on the front lines in Afghanistan, including the previously unpublished letters home of Captain Nichola Goddard, the first female NATO soldier killed in combat, and an introductory reflection by Roméo Dallaire.
Collected here are stories of battle and the more subtle engagements of this little-understood war: the tearful farewells; the shock of immersion into a culture that has been at war for thirty years; looking a suicide bomber in the eye the moment before he strikes; grappling with mortality in the Kandahar Field Hospital; and the unexpected humour that leavens life in a warzone. Throughout each piece the passion of those engaged in rebuilding this shattered country shines through, a glimmer of optimism and determination so rare in multinational military actions-and so particularly Canadian.
In Outside the Wire, award-winning author Kevin Patterson and co-editor Jane Warren have rediscovered the valour and horror of sacrifice in this, the definitive account of the modern Canadian experience of war.
More details
Persons
Kevin Patterson grew up in Manitoba and put himself through medical school by joining the Canadian army. Recently, he served for seven weeks as an internist at the Kandahar Air Field hospital. His first book, a memoir called The Water in Between, was a Globe Best Book and an international bestseller. Country of Cold, his debut short-story collection, won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. His latest book is the novel Consumption. He lives on Saltspring Island.
Jane Warren was raised in Toronto and attended McGill University in Montreal. She has worked as a literary scout in New York City, a subsidiary rights and contracts assistant at Random House of Canada Ltd., and a literary agent with Anne McDermid and Associates. She works as a freelance editor and lives in Toronto with her husband.
Jane Warren was raised in Toronto and attended McGill University in Montreal. She has worked as a literary scout in New York City, a subsidiary rights and contracts assistant at Random House of Canada Ltd., and a literary agent with Anne McDermid and Associates. She works as a freelance editor and lives in Toronto with her husband.
