Green on Blue

Four explosions rolled in the distance. If there'd been clouds in the sky, the noise would've been mistaken for thunder.

Aziz and his older brother Ali live in a village amid the pine forests and endless mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Their family is poor, but inside their mud-walled home,they have stability, love, and routine.

But when a convoy of armed men suddenly arrives in the village, their parents disappear and their world is shattered. In order to ensure his and his brother's survival, Aziz must join the Special Lashkar — a US-funded militia hungry for Afghan recruits. No longer a boy, but not yet a man, Aziz struggles to understand his place in a conflict both savage and entirely contrived. Will he embrace the brutality of war or leave it behind, and risk placing his brother — and a young woman he comes to love — in jeopardy?

Green on Blueis a gripping debut novel, and an astonishing feat of empathy and imagination about boys caught in a deadly conflict.

'Harrowing, brutal, and utterly absorbing … Ackerman has spun a morally complex tale of revenge, loyalty, and brotherly love.' — Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner

'Haunting … Powerful . . . a bone-deep understanding of the toll that a seemingly endless war has taken on ordinary Afghans.' — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

'As good a book as you're likely to find on men at war. It is full of insight, compassion, and extraordinarily beautiful writing. I could not recommend this novel more highly.' — Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

'What makes Green on Blueso brilliantly poignant is Elliot Ackerman's feeling of empathy, his ability to get under his characters' skin, reminding us not only of our vast differences but of our shared humanity.' — Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran