Small Wars

May 31, 2010
Save for a tendency to drop his voice on the last syllable of each sentence, Stephen Hoye is a perfect narrator. His clear, dramatic voice engages an audience quickly and fully in this tense and moving story of the agonizing dilemmas of young Major Treherne, who faces increasingly conflicting duties to his men, his country, his wife and twin daughters, but also to the enemy's men and boys so badly brutalized by his own troops. Set in 1956 Cyprus during the bloody British battles against Greek Cypriots, this is a fine story, carefully hewn and beautifully narrated, that resounds poignantly with the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Harper hardcover.

Starred review from October 19, 2009
In her excellent second novel (after The Outcast
), Jones sets a couple down in turbulent 1956 Cyprus as the Cypriots seek union with Greece and resist British rule. British army major Hal Treherne is dispatched to Cyprus, taking along his wife, Clara, and their young twin girls. There, they fight separate, but equally maddening, battles—Clara as an army wife with babies in an increasingly dangerous land, and Hal on the front lines where, yearning for firefights, he is instead haunted by his lack of control when torture and rape occur at the hands of his own men. While Hal dodges mortal danger, Clara tries to keep the homefront together, struggling to remain supportive of him as she remains isolated with the twins and he is tormented by the violence he witnesses. After Clara narrowly avoids death, Hal makes a split-second decision with powerful implications for their future. The narrative is excruciatingly tense and also graced with real emotion as a marriage is pushed to the brink and loyalties are stretched and broken. It's the perfect mix of poignant and harrowing.