Small Wars
Sadie Jones
Small Wars
Hal Treherne is a young and dedicated soldier on the brink of a brilliant career. Impatient to see action, his other deep commitment is to Clara, his beautiful 'red, white and blue girl', who sustains him as he rises through the ranks. When Hal is transferred to the Mediterranean, Clara, now his wife, and their baby daughters join him. But Cyprus is no 'sunshine posting', and the island is in the heat of the Emergency: the British are defending the colony against Cypriots - schoolboys and armed guerrillas alike - battling for enosis, union with Greece. The skirmishes are far from glorious and operations often rough and bloody. Still, in serving his country and leading his men, Hal has a taste of triumph. Clara shares his sense of duty. She must settle down, make no fuss, smile. But action changes Hal, and Clara becomes fearful - of the lethal tit-for-tat beyond the army base, and her increasingly distant husband. The atrocities Hal is drawn into take him further from Clara; a betrayal that is only part of the shocking personal crisis to come.
4.0 out of 5 based on 8 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
384 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
August 2009 |
| ISBN |
978-0701184551 |
| Publisher |
Chatto & Windus |
| |
Hal Treherne is a young and dedicated soldier on the brink of a brilliant career. Impatient to see action, his other deep commitment is to Clara, his beautiful 'red, white and blue girl', who sustains him as he rises through the ranks. When Hal is transferred to the Mediterranean, Clara, now his wife, and their baby daughters join him. But Cyprus is no 'sunshine posting', and the island is in the heat of the Emergency: the British are defending the colony against Cypriots - schoolboys and armed guerrillas alike - battling for enosis, union with Greece. The skirmishes are far from glorious and operations often rough and bloody. Still, in serving his country and leading his men, Hal has a taste of triumph. Clara shares his sense of duty. She must settle down, make no fuss, smile. But action changes Hal, and Clara becomes fearful - of the lethal tit-for-tat beyond the army base, and her increasingly distant husband. The atrocities Hal is drawn into take him further from Clara; a betrayal that is only part of the shocking personal crisis to come.
Sadie Jones speaks to Eva Wiseman about her book - Observer 23/8/09
Reviews
The Times
Kate Saunders
“Jones’s first novel, Outcast, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, was a very hard act to follow. Her second, however, is even better... Jones’s research is impeccable, and her emotional intelligence outstanding.”
11/09/2009
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The Evening Standard
John Harding
“Showing that the Costa First Novel Award for her debut The Outcast was no fluke, Sadie Jones proves herself again a gripping storyteller whose stark, unflashy prose has a way of absorbing you into the fibre of her characters' lives. Highly recommended.”
04/09/2009
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The Daily Mail
John Harding
“Showing that the Costa First Novel Award for her debut The Outcast was no fluke, Sadie Jones proves herself again a gripping storyteller whose stark, unflashy prose has a way of absorbing you into the fibre of her characters' lives. Highly recommended.”
04/09/2009
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The Daily Telegraph
Lucy Daniel
“Absorbing... Jones tries her hand at gory battle scenes, but more compelling are the small inner conflicts of both soldiery and marriage... It’s hard to imagine how a novel that deals so deftly with shame, duty and discipline could be set in contemporary England. One wonders where Sadie Jones will go from here.”
03/09/2009
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The Daily Telegraph
Lucy Beresford
“...through [Hal's] agony, the impact of military life on our humanity is subtly explored. It’s a world where brutal deeds are accorded less punishment than deeds of conscience, and Jones depicts it chillingly in a well-paced novel possessing both literary and moral integrity. ”
30/09/2009
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The Sunday Times
Lucy Atkins
“The tension, unsurprisingly, builds, and the marriage is strained to breaking point. Jones is fabulous at this... The central catastrophe ... is well flagged-up but even so, when it comes, it feels leftfield. This is quite an achievement. Of course, there are minor irritations. Hemingwayesque tics can seem a little mannered... But overall the stylistic coolness helps, rather than hinders, the 1950s atmosphere.”
23/09/2009
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The Guardian
Justine Jordan
“Small Wars is commendably ambitious, but also a thinner, more mannered work than its predecessor... Jones is setting herself huge challenges, as she attempts to mine the consciousness of every character and to pronounce on national mood as well as focus on tiny details, and this can result in over-explication and hasty shorthand... Yet if the book falters in its more sweeping ambitions, it is uncannily good at the evocation of charged moments...”
26/09/2009
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Times Literary Supplement
Stephanie Cross
“[The Outcast] was notable for its cumulative, oppressive scenes of mental anguish and mismatched, inarticulate need. But while Hal seems at first to offer scope for more of the same, it is only in the final quarter of this novel that the similarities seem more than superficial, and Jones matches the power of her previous work.”
04/09/2009
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