Last week read The Afghan Campaign, by Steven Pressfield, a novel about Alexander the Great's three year campaign to conquer Afghanistan.
Absolutely brilliant, and so vivid you could imagine you were there, battling ten foot snow drifts while crossing the Hindu Kush. I actually started to feel quite chilly in that part, and had to turn the hot tap with my toe to top up the bath.
Also, Creature of the Night, a novel by Kate Thompson, intended for teenage readers admittedly but very well written and highly readable nonetheless.
Shortened synopsis from that Wikipedia page:
Bobby, the fourteen-year-old narrator, is a thief and a hooligan. When his mother moves him and his young brother to a cottage in rural Ireland ... and is given work by a local farmer. The cottage they are living in is on a path between two fairy forts. The family is warned by the farmer’s mother to put out a bowl of milk for the fairies every night, but rashly they consider this a mere superstition ...
Absolutely brilliant, and so vivid you could imagine you were there, battling ten foot snow drifts while crossing the Hindu Kush. I actually started to feel quite chilly in that part, and had to turn the hot tap with my toe to top up the bath.
Also, Creature of the Night, a novel by Kate Thompson, intended for teenage readers admittedly but very well written and highly readable nonetheless.
Shortened synopsis from that Wikipedia page:
Bobby, the fourteen-year-old narrator, is a thief and a hooligan. When his mother moves him and his young brother to a cottage in rural Ireland ... and is given work by a local farmer. The cottage they are living in is on a path between two fairy forts. The family is warned by the farmer’s mother to put out a bowl of milk for the fairies every night, but rashly they consider this a mere superstition ...
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