Army

It's War, But From A Different Point Of View

Former British Army Captain, Harry Parker lost both legs when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) on night patrol in Afghanistan.
 
He was medically discharged in 2013 and has written a novel drawing on his experiences in conflict.
 
The book, Anatomy Of A Soldier, is told from the point of view of 45 different inanimate objects for example tourniquets and soldier's dog tags. Harry said:
"I was looking of a way to take my own experiences out of it. I didn't really want to say I was in the Helmand Valley, this happened to me. I think I really wanted to get away from alot of the politics that surround it and give it a bit of air."
Reviewers have already described it as a "war story".
 
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Fellow writers are full of praise for Harry Parker's debut novel.
"It's marvellously told and this way of telling it ... giving the inanimate a voice ... is both engrossing and distancing and I know of nothing quite like it." (Alan Bennett)
"It is a novel of concentrated ferocity and chilling accomplishments, tense and unflinching but alive to every nuance of feeling." (Hilary Mantel)
"This is a brilliant book, direct from the battle zone, where all the paraphernalia of slaughter is deployed to tell its particular and savage story." (Edna O'Brien)
 

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