In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner was at the head of a convoy of 3,500 US soldiers as they entered the Iraqi desert. Now, still stalked by conflict, he retraces his war experience and meditates on the echoes between his story and those of generations of soldiers marching to battle before him. Spanning pre-deployment to combat zone, World War I to Vietnam, boredom to bloodlust, roadside bombs to open mic nights, My Life as a Foreign Country asks what it means to be a soldier and a human being. The most haunting book I read this year Irish Times His shrapnel-like chapters come at you from all angles Compulsive Guardian Turner is a soldier with the soul of a poet Daily Telegraph Wrathful, wry and incantatory Erica Wagner, New Statesman Beautiful, electrifying and full of pain Washington Post