‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.’ – Leon Trotsky
From Kandahar to Sarajevo, the forests of Lithuania to the boot camps of the DRC, Zoe Lambert’s stories weave a dark and disturbing web, interlacing documentary accounts with imagined testimonies to give voice to the many silenced casualties of war: an elderly woman on a bus tells a love story drawn from the depths of Soviet history; a soldier returns from his first tour of duty unsure he deserves his hero’s welcome; a Norwegian immigrant pieces together a family history fractured in the aftermath of Nazi occupation. Individually, these stories bear witness to a thirst for conflict that seems both unquenchable and foreign. But together, they bring the question of collusion and responsibility all the way back to the reader’s own doorstep.
‘Ranging confidently across time and place, Lambert’s stories are sharply observed, moving, and continually surprising.’ – Jane Rogers
‘Lambert’s collection presents a carefully balanced picture of the world’s combat zones… The writing is disarmingly plain and to-the-point… a kind of narrative ambush… I’d recommend that you read these.’ – The Guardian.
‘A startlingly good collection of stories by a confident writer. Reading it is like taking a masterclass in how to do it well.’ – MsLexia Magazine
‘Reading ‘The War Tour’ is like wandering through a labyrinth of the unexpected, full of marvellous things… Lambert gazes into the abyss and does not flinch.’ – 3:AM Magazine. Read the full review.
‘Poignantly portraying the everyday loves, losses, strengths and sacrifices of those living with war, The War Tour depicts trauma, horror and confusion alongside defiance, duty and survival, all in quiet, compelling language that resonates long beyond the final page.’ – For Books’ Sake. Read the full review.
‘Lambert presents an eclectic representation of war, touching on its historical, personal, and national effects… with emotional crescendos that highlight the talent and potential that she possesses.’ – Book Munch. Read the full review.
‘The War Tour begins and ends with a flourish… surprising and very well written.’ – Keeper of the Snails blog. Read the full review.
‘…although war acts as the focal point for the collection, Lambert does not permit her reader the luxury of reading for, and settling into, an overarching coherence that makes sense of the individual stories. Instead, in their irresolution, it is almost as if the stories represent fractures radiating from a central but undefined tragedy or trauma.’ –The Public Intellectual in Zoe Lambert’s The War Tour – C21 Literature
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