cover image City of Soldiers: 
A Year of Life, Death, and 
Survival in Afghanistan

City of Soldiers: A Year of Life, Death, and Survival in Afghanistan

Kate Fearon. Interlink, $17.95 trade paper (318p) ISBN 978-1-56656-902-6

Having worked in peace and reconstruction efforts in Ireland and Kosovo, Fearon (Women’s Work: The Story of the Northern Ireland Coalition) looks back at the 16 months she spent with the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah, capital of the Helmand province in Afghanistan. Lashkar Gah became known as “Little America,” but the Persian name means “City of Soldiers.” Describing daily life inside and outside of military bases, she covers travel dangers, body armor, and the omnipresence of death. But she also depicts Afghan culture, dancing, drinking, and food. Warned against eating local dishes, viewed as unhygienic, she describes her cautious sharing of a meal (she steered clear of fish from a polluted river) in a local police station. Getting to know the people and the province, she discovered that, despite political fragmentation, they articulated a shared vision “to live free from fear; to have real choices in their education, public and private lives.” Her memoir etches a portrait of invasion and occupation with humor and compassion, concluding, “The moral question arises..., [what happens] if, having raised risks and expectations, we then withdraw support before the fledgling institutions are ready to fly by themselves.” Photos. Agent: Judith Murdoch Literary Agency Ltd. (U.K.). (July)