The Girl in Green

Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of Norwegian by Night, a story of two men given a second chance to save the girl they failed to protect decades before. 1991 Near Checkpoint Zulu, one hundred miles from the Kuwait border, British journalist Thomas Benton meets American private Arwood Hobbes. Desert Storm is over, and peace has been declared. As the two argue about whether it makes sense to cross the nearest border, they become embroiled in a horrific attack in which a young local girl in a green dress is killed under their protection. The two men walk away into their respective lives. But something has cracked in both of them. 2013 Twenty-two years later, in another place, in another war, they meet again and are offered an unlikely opportunity to redeem themselves when that same girl in green is found alive and in need of salvation. Will this second chance allow the two men to right the wrongs of their past?