by Tim Parks
First published 2018
Giovanni Drogo arrives at Fort Bastiani with grand plans to serve his country. The young officer expects a brief posting at this remote outpost in the Tartar desert. Instead, he finds a crumbling castle staffed by aging soldiers who have spent decades scanning empty horizons. No enemy has ever appeared across the wasteland. What begins as a temporary assignment becomes months, then years of waiting. Drogo watches alongside his fellow soldiers, all hoping for the great battle that will give meaning to their service. The desert stretches endlessly before them, silent and unchanged. As time passes, Drogo faces a choice between leaving for a real military career or staying to await the conflict that may never come. Parks explores how dreams can become prisons and how the promise of future glory can consume a life.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure
Vibes: atmospheric, contemplative, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unfulfilled-expectations
Setting: Fort Bastiani, Tartar Desert
Period: 20th Century
288 pages · Paperback · Canongate Canons