On Afghanistan's Plains

This is the memoir of the hero we would hope to meet in the trenches where hope too often fails. A British Army veteran, Barry Alexander is a former Nursing Officer who led a unit of medics in Afghanistan. The chaos of combat, the necessity for skill, for tenderness in the face of horror and loss, for ingenuity in a place where heroes fear to tread power his story. He notes, "If this were a Hollywood movie, I would be able to get some forceps up into the wound and clamp off the artery"-but this is no fairy tale despite its cinematic detail. Barry Alexander's candour, straightforward telling and eloquence never revolve into sentimentality. His is a moving memoir that reminds us what it means to be human and humane in the face of war. He never writes as if he is a hero but it is the sense of his heroism through the vivid, and, yes, often wry telling of what he's seen and done, how he's healed others while trying to maintain his own well-being, both physical and mental, that define why you should read Alexander. The memoir closes with poems written by Alexander that will break your heart and make it soar; published in the 2011 anthology Heroes: 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets (Ebury Press). -Mary Tabor