Book Publishers
JACK'S WAR:THE WASTED YEARS By Ant Dry Publisher: Sid Harta R.R.P.: $24-99 Review: Frank Nolan Ant Dry grew up in the privileged classes of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), came to Australia in 2007, and now lives in Tasmania. His first novel, Jack's War: The Wasted Years, is partly autobiographical and tells the story of four critical years in the life of a young man from Rhodesia's white “landed gentry.” In 1976, eighteen year old Jack Henning is called up for National Service. Jack undertakes his duty with mixed feelings. He enjoys the life of a wealthy white man in a troubled country and admits that the war he is called on to fight in is wrong. Over the next four years, Jack experiences the horrors and barbarity of civil war and comes to deplores the utter waste which war brings about. These four years are also those in which Jack comes of age as a man as his love life goes through the inevitable ups and downs. Australian readers may not be familiar with the history of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the second half of the 20th century but all can relate to young Jack as he struggles to make sense of his “wasted years”. Partly a story of war, and partly a love story, Jack's War:The Wasted Years is a well written and thought-provoking first novel.
As the flames burned furiously, the body seemed to come alive. The fingers began to curl and turn white as the skin blistered and popped. Slowly the body began to sit up as the stomach muscles contracted in the heat. Read more about “Jack's War The Wasted Years”