Casualties of War(4)

From beginning to end, not one shot is fired in (anger), because this book isn’t a war novel except in the loosest sense of the term. Rather, it’s an (erotic) love story about two young people from opposite ends of the earth (caught) up in events far beyond their control. It’s also a meditation on the devastating effects armed conflict has on society, and on the psychological and emotional toll it exacts from soldiers and civilians alike. (Above) all, it’s a modern tragedy in which the war, like the somber moors in “Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” becomes a metaphor for cruelty and (injustice), for fate itself.