Kristina is in trouble. Deployed to Afghanistan as a non comissioned officer she has to leave her twins behind. And then there is a mysterious accident. This is the story about a rather normal girl from the former German Democratic Republik, actually not a democratic place at all. She trained hard and won olympic medals for her country but nobody really cared. Joining the Army to escape from home would, to Grandma's opinion, turn her either into a spinster or a slut. Special agent Andreas doesn't believe in either and marries her. But when she falls pregnant he disappears. The question is,...

A blast rips the heat-hazed air on Jalalabad Road in Kabul. Then silence. For four young German soldiers their tour of duty ends in a death trap. Dr Heike Groos, a military physician, is one of the first to care for the wounded soldiers at the site of a suicide bombing. Like herself these men came to the Hindu Kush with faith in the humanitarian nature of their mission. Yet what awaited them was the merciless reality of war. What happens to the horror, anxiety, hatred and visual images that remain long after a survivor's escape from hell? Dr Groos' book is the first by a woman soldier from...