This is the story of Valerie as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend and then leaves to take up her national service with the Israeli army. Nothing has prepared her for the strict routines, gruelling marches, lack of sleep, poor food, absence of privacy or crushing of initiative. However, the book also depicts the undeniable excitements of the work, including working in a 'spying centre' near Jerusalem, listening in on the communications of the Jordanian pilots. This book offers a glimpse inside another world - of a world where a teenager can worry about what she wears, how much she's eating, whether her boyfriend will call, and at the same time living in a country that is effectively at war.

 

There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC .

Valerie Zenatti was born in Nice on April Fool's Day 1970. When she was thirteen, she went to live with her parents in Israel, where she did her national service, which inspired her novel, 'When I was a Soldier'. Even now she doesn't go out without her survival kit - these days of a book, a notepad and a pen. She now lives in Paris, where she works also as a translator of Hebrew, and is continually surprised and delighted at seeing Lucas, aged eight, and Nina, nearly two, grow up. This is Valerie Zenatti's first book for Bloomsbury.