A beautiful day to die: Welcome to Kabul

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 Germany to give us insights into the world of soldiers, medics and doctors in Afghanistan. She describes what happens within people who live under the edge, under constant threat and shows us how war harms the human soul criticising a system of both military leaders and politicians which has not yet found a way to stand by its veterans.