Small Wars: A Novel

This was a fascinating look at an earlier time when the British had enclaves in so many parts of the globe - and, in each, they tried to live in their own way - and expected the citizens of that country to adopt their ways, too. Hal Treherne, a major in the British Army, has been posted to Cyprus in 1956, and he's taken his young wife and twin daughters with him. There, they live with servants - spending most of their time at the "club" - while the poor Army fights off a group of insurgents on a daily basis. Get up, go to war, and come home and have a chatty little dinner with your wife and young children. Try watching your troops being blown to bits during the day and making love to your wife at night. Treherne is able to pull if off up to a point. In the meantime, we are feeling what it's like to live this life in Cyprus - great descriptions and settings, realistic dialogue, real characters. Jones puts it all together expertly - and she reminds me of one of my all-time favorite authors - M.M. Kaye - who wrote delightful mysteries - Death in Zanzibar, Cyprus, etc. I love to be transported to another place and time - and I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which leaves you really wondering about the ending right up to the last page - and I will leave you wondering, too! Grab this one - time well spent!!

London based author Sadie Jones won us with her critically acclaimed debut novel THE OUTCAST. She was praised for "her lush writing and tantalizing sense of setting and detail." So true, and all of this is at the fore once more with SMALL WARS, a deeply affecting story of love and loyalty. We first meet Hal Treherne as a cadet at a Sandhurst passing-out parade in 1946. As Princess Elizabeth moves down the line during inspection Hal "knew that she was the embodiment of his country, that he was doing his best to please and that he always would." Action segues quickly to a volatile Cyprus in 1956. Hal is now a major in the British Army, and has been dispatched here to ferret out terrorists, those who are seeking to unite with Greece. The guerrillas fight with any means - rocks, bombs, ambushes, random shootings, piano wire stretched across roads in the hope of lopping off British heads. Early in his tenure Hal is joined by his wife, Clara, and their young twin daughters, Meg and Lottie. Initially Clara is brave, cheerful, eager to make the best of things while they're in Cyprus. As for Hal, remember how we first met him - he is a moral man, an honorable man, believing that he is serving the greater good. However, the almost daily attacks begin to take their toll on him, and he is appalled, haunted by unexpected violence on the part of his men, raping, torturing. His state of mind, of course, affects Clara who is alone a great deal of the time with their girls in a strange, dangerous place. Their once solid marriage becomes frayed; Clara and Hal driven almost to desperation, each fighting their own private battles. Sadie Jones has crafted a remarkable story, richly detailed, reminding us of how deeply lives are affected by war. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke

Small Wars very quickly draws a reader into the lives of a British army officer and his wife. They are on British-controlled Cyprus in the mid-1950s where the British army is facing the terrorist/freedom fighter (you choose) Ethniki Organosis Kypriou Agonistou, or EOKA, a Greek-Cypriot liberation movement. The officer observes and particpates in terrible things done to prisoners to gather intelligence. And he comes home to his wife and children every evening. It is a harrowing life for all of them--British garrison duty in the midst of a small war. This story describes that life and the people living it here in detail. This is a fascinating novel with an extraordinary and affirming ending.

This is one of the best books I've read all year. It could easily be nonfiction. The parallels of a military family in the British Army in 1956 and the books I have read (true accounts) of the war in Iraq are endless. I took two truisms from this book: history repeats itself and no one ever seems to learn from history. I'd like to mention that since most readers weren't born at the time this book is set and those of us who were were pre-kindergarten age, it is very useful to read up on the history of this conflict. I'd suggest Wikipedia. Cyprus was a British colony, with a Greek majority and a Turkish minority (read Sunnis and Shiites). The two groups were at each other's throats and also were fighting the British. There was a lot of terrorism such as was seen in Iraq, roadside bombs and mines, army vehicles blown up. There was a lot of violence by the British against the civilian population, soldiers breaking into houses, rapes, destruction and torture frigteningly like what we saw at Abu Ghraib. In both situations, it was hard to tell who was and who wasn't a terrorist, and mistakes were made. With all the atrocities on both sides, Hal, a British major, starts having nightmares, attacks of conscience, and behaves badly towards others, including his pregnant wife Clara. In the third part of the book, a probable terrorist attack (a shooting in a city street) brings the whole scene up close and personal. Hal begins acting irrationally and out of character. One of the themes of the book is the effect war has the people fighting it. It's horrifying to think of military personnel returning from the Middle East today, even if they have no physical injuries. They will never be the same people they were before. The title refers to some of the British calling this a "small war" rather than a "real war" (e.g., World War II), but it can also refer to the war between Hal and Clara, Hal and the army, and just about anyone else in the book. I say don't miss this one whatever you do.

This is a riveting achievement -- perhaps the most personal and devastating novels about the effects of war on the human soul that I have ever read. At the center of this book is Hal Treherne, a major in the British Army, called to duty to the British colony of Cyprus. There, he and his beautiful young wife, Clara, and their two baby daughters, set up life in the midst of escalating skirmishes. Like the mythical Dorian Gray, Major Treherne initially becomes infatuated...with the glory of war. But his euphoria quickly fades. Early on, he directs a siege, where an ambush group pours petrol down the exit shaft of a cave, followed by grenades, and stands by as men -- either blackened or burned -- come stumbling out. Gradually, this, and other debaunched acts, darken his soul while outwardly, he gives the appearance of being successful and in command. Even finding comfort with Clara becomes impossible. Sadie Jones writes: "Without looking at her, he took his eye down her horizon...small hill for head, little steep valley into neck, hill off shoulder, deep valley to wait...not a home landscape then, an island." The love and sustenance this couple found in each other disintegrates; although it is not defined, this is a devastating portrait of post traumatic stress disorder. As Hal and Clara each struggle -- separately and alone -- to remain human in an inhuman world, the atrocities begin to hit home. And Hal is faced with a choice: to make a separate peace or to continue the insanity. This is an extraordinarily polished book; Sadie Jones knows just when to lead the reader with lush detail and when to step back and let the reader's imagination take over. It evokes books such as Ian McEwan's Atonement,Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, and Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant, but yet carves a niche all its own. I will not soon forget it.