I started and re-started this book several times before I was able to get into it. I don't know why the beginning of the book kept losing my attention. Once I got into it though, I discovered a wonderfully written book and a beautiful if somewhat sad story within.
I am usually wary of military books because they tend to be either too propaganda-ish overt hero worship or men who are some sort of machine such that they can get shot and fight 5 men barehanded and go home and have vigorous sex with their love partner. The main reason I picked this book is because it was set in a British military context and I wanted to see if it will suffer the above faults. I was happy to discover that it doesn't suffer too much of it, there is criticism of politicians for sending men to war without regard for their lives, without providing them with the right gear, there is criticism for the reason behind the war in Iraq but there is the little bit of degenerating the Iraqis that I was uncomfortable with.
This book brings together Nat and Connor as Connor attempts to retrace his dead brother's footsteps in Iraq as he tries to makes sense of how and why he died. Connor doesn't end up retracing his brother's journey instead he is embedded with Nat's team.
I think these two were strong characters in a very macho environment and for that reason we didn't see much of their softer side and since most of the book was set in a war zone surrounded by several people we didn't see much of their intimate relationship, the moments they were together were few and they were usually tired and they didn't go in depth in communication with each other.
I loved the book though even with his heavy military and war theme mainly because it's quite well written.