The Wasted Vigil, by Nadeem Aslam

Aslam flies across continents to base his third novelamid the tortured history of Afghanistan. What emerges is a brutal, albeit lyrically painted picture of a ravaged world of Soviet invaders, Taliban warlords and English ex-patriots.

Horrifying moments of hand amputations, stonings and book burnings are balanced against Aslam's intense poeticism and tender stories of love, loss and friendship. The story unravels across 30 years of the Afghan conflict but always returns back to the intersecting lives - including Russian, English and Talib and Afghan - that are destroyed by it.