Rain by Barney Campbell

Drawing on his own experience, Barney Campbell's Rain is a powerful, vivid and affecting portrait of the Afghan frontline.

'No better on-the-ground description of Britain's war 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 StandardTom 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 despatched from home in the dead of an anonymous September night, a blood tribute leaving without fanfare. Full of eagerness, but wracked 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.