Sandstealers by Ben Brown

Sandstealers by Ben Brown (2009)

Read: July - August 2012

This book looked like my cup of tea when we found it in a charity shop in SW London.  I’d enjoyed reading biographies of various journalists in the past (John Snow, Kate Adie and the likes) and this seemed to combine journalism with conflict in areas of the world that we are interested in (the Balkans and the Middle East).

As it was a novel, rather than a biog I knew I’d have to put up with some kind of love story / personal dilemma taking place amongst the characters, but I was able to get over this (even though every character seemed to have their own personal trauma / conflict – much like what people claim with international teaching; that everyone has a backstory).  I found that the book moved with difficulty at first between the present day and the history, but after a while it settled in to a rhythm and pace that I found easy to read.

I did enjoy the settings; the Balkans and then the Middle East, and intense relationships between the journalists, as well as their approaches to their work were well conveyed.  One of the reasons behind buying this book was that the author biog showed that Ben Brown’s alter ego was a conflict correspondent himself.

The twist towards the end of the book was a little disappointing in that everything came back to relationships, rather than the setting itself, but I guess that working in such an intense environment means that relationships are actually important – even though you try not to make them so.