Disclosure : This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

City of Soldiers

Behind the headlines, the strategies, the surges, what is life really like in Afghanistan? What is it like to live and work there as a civilian on state-building with its people, fighting the Taliban with flip-charts and pens, not guns? In her account of sixteen months in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah, working for the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, Kate Fearon records everyday life on the frontline. Amidst the violence she unearths extraordinary stories of how ordinary Afghans live and what they think, both inside and outside the walls of military bases. From the thrills and risks of getting there to exploring Helmand and its history this book follows the author`s daily life she gets to know the people behind the war. She learns Pashto, visits the Districts, meets the US Marines, observes elections and evades suspected suicide bombers. She describes working with the tribal Elders on informal justice and policing issues, and building local democracy with them.She also listens to the musings of young men on marriage (and nightclubs), discovers what Afghan women really think of their burquas, and discusses poppy growing, pornography, forbidden love-notes, drinking and dancing. Tragic and touching but also wryly observed, City of Soldiers tells of the camaraderie and courage of those working under extreme conditions, foreigners and locals, civilians and military alike. It evokes the despair–and the guilt–that comes with targeted political murders in response to the process of democratization. Kate Fearon explains how the key driver for Afghans is pragmatism, their overriding goal survival, and reveals how women–and men–assert themselves in a seemingly impossibly restrictive culture with humour and hope.

Related Products:

How to Live in the City The Good Soldiers City Shapers London: The Creative People Shaping the City Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict City of London Four Soldiers Street Fight in Naples – A City`s Unseen History D-Day: The Soldiers` Story Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me Little People in the City – the Street Art of Slinkachu They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914-18 New York 3D Expanding City Skyline – Pocket Pop up Book Unknown Soldiers The Somme: The Epic Battle in the Soldiers` Own Words and Photographs Soldiers Sahibs The King`s City: London Under Charles II: A City That Transformed a Nation – And Created Modern Britain Mice in the City: New York People in London: One Photographer. Five Years. The Life of a City. Something of the Night In the City of Love`s Sleep Outback Stations: Life on the Land by the People Who Live There In The City Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi The City of Abraham: History, Myth and Memory: A Journey Through Hebron Soldiers of Salamis New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time Soft City In Paris: 20 Women on Life in the City of Light People of the City In Love with Paris: Recipes & Stories From The Most Romantic City In The World London Sketchbook: A City Observed Life in a Medieval City Carl Goes London: The City Guide for Curious and Creative People 100 First Words: City The Book of Venice: A City in Short Fiction