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  • Published: 26 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9781405921206
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384
Categories:

Rain




ONE OF THE EVENING STANDARD'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015
A searingly powerful novel in the bestselling tradition of Matterhorn

Tom Chamberlain was destined to be a soldier from the moment he discovered a faded picture of his father patrolling the streets of Belfast.

With the war in Afghanistan at its savage peak, Tom is dispatched from home in the dead of an anonymous September night, a blood tribute leaving without fanfare. Full of eagerness, but racked by self-doubt, he must discover who he is and what he is capable of.

But as the bonds with his comrades grow, home - and the loved ones left behind - seem ever more remote from the surreal violence and exhilaration of war.

  • Published: 26 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9781405921206
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384
Categories:

About the author

Barney Campbell

Barney Campbell joined the Army from university, was commissioned into the Blues and Royals and served with them for five years. He deployed on a tour of Afghanistan in the winter of 2009-10. He lives in the Scottish Borders. This is his first novel.

Praise for Rain

The best book about the experience of soldiering I've read since Robert Graves's First World War classic Goodbye To All That. Campbell is a fantastic writer . . . Rain is a heartbreaking, brutally truthful first novel written with love and respect for the guys in the frontline

Sunday Times

No better on-the-ground description of Britain's war in Afghanistan will ever be written. Rain is what Chickenhawk or, more recently, Matterhorn was to Vietnam. It's unputdownable, except for when the reader needs to draw breath or battle a lump in the throat

Evening Standard

Incredibly powerful. The best thing I've read on the war in Afghanistan . . . Some books have to be read - this is one

Sun

Riveting. The evocation of life in a warzone is captivatingly real . . . As well as the extraordinary detail there's a heartrending emotional depth . . . The result is eye opening and harrowing. A really powerful debut

Sunday Mirror

A wonderfully achieved, enthralling and moving novel of war. Its authenticity is as telling as it is terrifying

William Boyd

Rain is not merely good, it's remarkable. Powerful, at times unbearably harrowing, it captures both the fear and exhilaration of men pushed to breaking point

Jeremy Paxman

One of the most powerful and emotional works ever written about British soldiers in battle. Troubling, funny, upsetting, exhilarating and deeply moving. You will never forget it

Colonel Richard Kemp

A powerful and moving story of war with all the authenticity of a memoir

Charles Cumming

Thrilling, gut-wrenching and profoundly moving, this book, like all the very best novels of war, has the utterly compelling grip of authenticity

James Holland

An extraordinary book: authentic, beautifully written and very moving

Saul David

Simply superb. It could become the defining account of British soldiers in Afghanistan

Tom Petch, Writer and Director of 'The Patrol'

One of the best novels about the Afghanistan war. Brutally honest, it could have been a memoir. Read Rain

David Axe

Gripping . . . the ending is genuinely shocking

Daily Mail

A raw novel about the war in Afghanistan . . . the book smells completely authentic

Observer

A must-read debut

Tom Newton-Dunn

This is without doubt the best and most readable account of a modern combat soldier's life that I have read. The unique relationship between officer and soldier is brilliantly explored, as is the impact of war on loved ones left behind. Then there's the raw fear, the shock of the real thing, the loss of comrades and the sense of absolute mutual commitment that carries the day. I cannot commend it too much. A modern classic

General Lord Richards