Rain

By Barney Campbell,

Book cover of Rain

Book description

ONE OF THE EVENING STANDARD'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015
Barney Campbell's Rain is a searingly powerful debut that reads like a British Matterhorn
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'A wonderfully achieved, enthralling and moving novel of war. Its authenticity is as telling as it is terrifying' William Boyd

'No better on-the-ground description ofā€¦

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Why read it?

1 author picked Rain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In the interests of full disclosure, I knew Campbell at university so my judgment on this novel of the Afghan war cannot be fully impartial.

I found it powerful though. There are obvious overlays between the experience of Campbell himself and his central protagonist Tom Chamberlain ā€“ both serve in high-period Afghanistan as officers with cavalry units. (Campbell was in the Blues and Royals). That overlap grants the novel its authenticity ā€“ from its dissection of 'ally,ā€™ British army slang for cool, to ā€œrock starā€ bomb disposal officers capable of ā€œsquaring up to colonelsā€ and coffins of blast victims reducedā€¦

From Simon's list on the British Army.

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The team attempts a new route upā€¦

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