The Sandbox - Hardcover

Zimmerman, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569476284 ISBN 13: 9781569476284

Publisher: Soho Press, 2010

Synopsis

Operating Base Cornucopia: A three hundred-year-old fortress in the remote Iraqi desert where a few dozen soldiers wait for their next assignment; among them, Private Toby Durrant, a self-described “broke nobody.” Then a deadly ambush touches off events that put Durrant in the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy. Insurgents massing in the nearby hills, a secretive member of military intelligence, an abandoned toy factory, and a mysterious, half-feral child—Durrant must figure out the links between them if he’s to survive. A classic story of a decent man trying to do right under impossible circumstances, this blistering look at military life in “the sandbox” of Iraq marks the debut of a major new talent.

About this title

About the Author

David Zimmerman, the eldest of six children, was raised in Atlanta, Georgia by an army nurse and an army JAG officer. After receiving his MFA degree in creative writing from the University of Alabama, he spent several years living and working in Brazil and Ethiopia. The Sandbox is his first novel.

Reviews

Starred Review. Zimmerman's remarkable debut succeeds both as a realistic portrayal of the current Iraq war from the American perspective and as an energetic thriller. Stationed at a remote and poorly equipped U.S. army base in the Iraqi desert, Pvt. Toby Durrant worries about his pregnant fiancée back home. After a remotely detonated bomb kills two soldiers, Toby's commander, Lieutenant Blankenship, recruits him to monitor the accuracy of a translator, and then to interrogate two Iraqi prisoners suspected of being involved in the attack. Well aware of his lack of qualifications, Toby, who made a number of bad choices as a civilian, can't help thinking something else is going on, especially after the prisoners turn up dead. His difficulties escalate with the arrival of a military intelligence officer, who asks him for information about Blankenship. Readers will empathize with the author's everyman narrator as Toby tries to survive while maintaining his humanity. Zimmerman is a talent to watch. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The situation at remote Forward Operating Base Cornucopia isn’t good. Once home to 150 enlisted men, troop strength has been reduced to 45, and an IED attack has reduced that by 3. The commanding officer is a green West Point lieutenant who is a mystery to his troops, and locals with uncertain loyalties warn that a large force is massing nearby to wipe them out. A sandstorm has halted supply shipments, and the camp’s only video-game console has been stolen. Private Toby Durrant soldiers on, but the arrival and the actions of a lone, creepy intelligence officer hint that things are much, much worse than he realized. Interestingly, Durrant’s war is identified only contextually through allusions to Bush administration blunders. This fine first novel skillfully portrays both the eternal verities of war as well as the stark differences that each war imposes on the young who do the fighting; like many war novels, it powerfully conveys the message that young soldiers are more honorable than those who put them in harm’s way. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569476284
• ISBN 13: 9781569476284
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368