The Watch - Softcover

Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

3.59

1,327 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781090033 ISBN 13: 9781781090039

Publisher: Random House, 2012

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Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother's body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic or what she claims to be: a grieving sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? As she persists, single-minded in her mission, the camp's tense, claustrophobic atmosphere comes to a boil as the men argue about what to do next. "The Watch" takes an age-old story - the myth of Antigone - and hurls it into present-day Afghanistan. The result is an unputdownable, deeply affecting book that brilliantly exposes the realities of war. It is also our most powerful expression to date of the nature and futility of this very contemporary conflict.

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Review:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2012: A legless woman approaches a military outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, ostensibly to retrieve the body of her brother, who has been killed in a firefight. Having survived that firefight, the soldiers inside the compound are wary and edgy. That's the setup to a taut and gritty story that unfolds amid the dust, shadows, and unease of one slice of the war in Afghanistan. Playing with the myth of Antigone, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya has crafted an eloquent and intimate look at the types of events still occurring on a daily basis. At the Tarsandan combat outpost, as the woman refuses to leave and questions mount about her true intentions, everything comes into question--what's right and wrong? why are we here? Barbaric, heartfelt, heartbreaking, and lyrical, this is a primal and beautiful work. And a page-turner to the very last page. --Neal Thompson

About the Author:

Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya was born in India and educated in politics and philosophy at Calcutta University and the University of Pennsylvania. His previous two novels, The Gabriel Club and The Storyteller of Marrakesh, have been published in eleven languages in sixteen countries. He lives in New York.

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