Junior Officers Reading Club Killing Time & Fighting Wars

Hailed as a classic of war writing in the U.K., The Junior Officers' Reading Club is a revelatory first-hand account of a young enlistee's profound coming of age. Attempting to stave off the tedium and pressures of army life in the Iraqi desert by losing themselves in the dusty paperbacks on the transit-camp bookshelves, Hennessey and a handful of his pals from military academy form the Junior Officers' Reading Club. By the time he reaches Afghanistan and the rest of the club are scattered across the Middle East, they are no longer cheerfully overconfident young recruits, hungering for action and glory. Hennessey captures how boys grow into men amid the frenetic, sometimes exhilarating violence, frequent boredom, and almost overwhelming responsibilities that frame a soldier's experience and the way we fight today.

Watch a Video

"Articulate and unsparing...[an] unforgettable account of how modern warfare both broadened and unsettled a young soldier."

-The New York Times Book Review

"As the art of warfare has transformed from trenches and Maginot Lines to guerrilla terrorism and nation-building, a new strain of existentialism has emerged: the boredom of war. Patrick Hennessey, a captain in the British Army, captures that ennui perfectly...[he] wields his words as impressively as he does his weapons. "

-Entertainment Weekly

"Unlike the chiseled journalists who go to observe and report, Hennessey was in the shit himself. His first (and hopefully not only) book tempers the rigors of war with youthful irreverence."

-Time Out New York