The Great Karoo — Fred Stenson

In 1899, Frank Adams, a cowboy from Pincher Creek, joins the Canadian Mounted Rifles and sets out to defend the Empire in South Africa. There, against a landscape of extremes, Frank forms intense bonds with Ovide Smith, a reluctant soldier from the Alberta plains, and Jeff Davis, son of a Blood Indian determined to prove himself in a white man's war. As the young Canadians engage in battle with a determined and wily enemy, they are forced to realize the bounds of their own loyalty and courage, and confront the arrogance and indifference of those who have led them into conflict.

The Great Karoo is a deeply satisfying novel, marked by the complexities of its plot, the subtleties of its relationships, and the scale of its terrain. Exhilarating and horrific by turns, it explores with passion and insight the lasting warmth of friendship and the legacy of devastation occasioned by war.