New in the ILC - ANZAC Day reading

Dreaming the Enemy by David Metzenthen

I am still moving despite the fact that this dreamed-up bastard Khan walks with me - no, he doesn't walk with me, he rises up to fire, has my life in his hands, my head in his sights, and that is the image of all images that I have somehow to lose...

Johnny Shoebridge has just returned from fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. He no longer carries a weapon - only photos of the dead and a dread of the living...Pursued by a Viet Cong ghost-fighter called Khan, Johnny makes one last stand - knowing that if he cannot lay this spectre to rest, he will remain a prisoner of war for ever.
Drawing on courage, loyalty and love, Johnny tries to find a way back from the nightmare of war to a sense of hope for the future. A deeply moving exploration of trauma and recovery.

There are a lot of books that are set in the First World War, and also a lot sent in the Second World War. The Vietnam war is still much ignored by Australia. The same is true of the kinds of wounds people brought back from the wars: a lot is said about those that died, and those that returned home physically injured. Not a lot is said about the mental scars that nearly all veterans come home with.

This is not a comfortable read, but it scores high praise by those that have read it.