Master Corporal Tanya Young, Captain Stephen Hughes, Private Jonny Henderson, and Sergeant Chris Anders have lived through an atrocity while holding one of the most volatile regions in Afghanistan. As each of them is interviewed by an unseen broadcasting organization, they recount their version of events leading up to the horrific incident with painful, relenting replies. What begins to form is a picture of the effects of guilt and the psychological toll of violence in a war where the enemy is sometimes indiscernible.
For the first time in the prize’s 27-year history, a playwright has won the Trillium Book Award:
Hannah Moscovitch received the $20,000 prize for her play This is War, about a group of four Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The play was originally mounted at the Tarragon Theatre in early 2013.
Previous recipients include Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.