Aziz and his older brother Ali live in a village amid the pine forests and endless mountains of eastern Afghanistan. There is no school, but their mother teaches them to read and write, and once a month sends the boys on a two-day journey to the bazaar. They are poor, but inside their mud-walled home, the family has stability, love, and routine. When a convoy of armed men arrives in the village one day, their parents disappear and their world is shattered. In order to survive Aziz must join the Special Lashkar, a US-funded militia always hungry for Afghan recruits. No longer a boy, but not yet a man, he departs for the untamed border. Trapped in a conflict both savage and entirely contrived, Aziz struggles to understand his place. Will he embrace the brutality of war or leave it behind, and risk placing his brother - and a young woman he comes to love - in jeopardy? Elliot Ackerman served five tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has written a gripping, morally complex debut novel, an astonishing feat of empathy and imagination about boys caught in a deadly conflict.