This title comes from the author of the top ten bestseller The Junior Officers Reading Club. When Patrick Hennessey returned home from Afghanistan battle-worn exhilarated unsure if hed see anything like it in his life again he left behind him bands of friendship forged in the heat of the moment between living & dying. The comrades he left furthest behind were Qiam Syed & Majhib. They are still there in the dust & heat of Helmand soldiers fighting for their homel&. Kandak" is the story of how these lasting bonds were made. Written in the spare & lucid prose of " Junior Officers Reading Club" Patrick Hennessey tells of their comically bad first meetings the mutual suspicion incomprehension & cultural divides that characterize early interactions between British & Afghan soldiers to the moments under fire when those divides can sometimes cross chaos & culture shocks to turn into brotherhood. An account of friendship & loss of warriors & soldiers " Kandak" explores the reasons men pick up the sword & how in the intensity of battle unlikely alliances can be formed."