SOLDIERS WITHOUT BORDERS

This is a rough tale of rough lads doing a rough job. Ian McPhedran has compiled the recollections of men who served in the Australian and New Zealand SAS (special forces), and Peter Byrne recounts those memories with forthrightness and compassion. In a tone of easy familiarity he delivers plenty of the unsavory language of hardened soldiers. This is not a book for the faint-hearted—Byrne takes listeners through such experiences as slaughters in Rwanda, helicopter crashes, and the unimaginable duties of dragging the dead into pits and the dying into makeshift hospitals. There’s grief, bravery, the savagery of humans massacring other humans, and occasional humor. But for those who want an inside look at the SAS and how camaraderie overcomes some of the worst conditions and duties, this audiobook makes for powerful, incredible, often unbelievable listening. B.D.J. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2010]