A flickering scene of carnage in the forest. A fairy tale metamorphosed into something simple and old and real and horrible beyond reckoning. Yellow fires roaring like dragons and choking smoke and a stench of burning hair and bone and flesh and the trees looming over it. Bloodied beasts clotted with gore that sniffed about for any that might still live. A slathered shape approached. "I think some got away." "They'll spread the word," said the Captain." A realist nightmare that piles horror upon horror, The Book of War tells the story of a child who comes to manhood in the cauldron of war. With inescapable prophecies locked quietly in the terse lines, it shines an uneasy light on how South Africa started to become what it is...