The War Tour

by Zoe Lambert

From Kandahar to Sarajevo and the forests of Lithuania to the Congo’s boot camps, these short stories weave a dark and disturbing web, interlacing documentary accounts with imagined testimonies to give a 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; and a Norwegian immigrant pieces together a family history fractured in the aftermath of Nazi occupation. These are just some of the stories that, individually, bear witness to a thirst for conflict that seems both unquenchable and foreign. Together, they bring the question of collusion and responsibility all the way back to the reader’s own doorstep.

Genres: Short Stories, Contemporary

214 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Zoe Lambert is a Manchester based short story writer. Her linked short story collection, The War Tour, is out with Comma Press. She also has a PhD and lectures at any university who will have her.

Reviews

[Rebecca Fell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of my preparation before interviewing Lambert (who is lovely). I don’t naturally gravitate towards short story collections purely because I feel like a strong collection of stories are an extreme rarity even when they are written by literary legends (for instance, Margaret Atwood with “Wilderness Tips”). Thematically, this collection is richly diverse, ranging from illustrating the experience of a Rwandan child soldier to chronicling the journey of a Jewish physicist in Austria. There were definitely stories I enjoyed more than others (“When the Truck Came” was probably my favourite) but overall I think this collection was pretty strong considering this was Lambert’s debut collection. It also raised some really interesting questions that I posed to her during the interview which was great!

[Elizabeth Ducie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, the fifteen diverse pieces in this anthology of short stories are linked by the theme of war. They range in geography from Western Europe to the Middle East; from Central and Eastern Europe to Africa. Their timeline spans much of the twentieth century as well as the present day. In some cases, they are set in a war zone, with direct and immediate consequences; in others, the war is a distant memory which impacts on behaviour many years later.
But although the setting is war, it is not the main focus. This is an anthology of literary stories; they are character-led rather than driven by plot. Some, like the stories about Rosa Luxemburg and Lise Meitner are based on historical fact. Others are completely fictional, although based on the experiences of people Lambert has met during her work as an activist on asylum seeker issues.

Some of the stories, especially These Words are No More Than a Story About a Woman On a Bus which is set in Lithuania, struck a particular chord with me. Others such as From Kandahar were thought-provoking, more for what they left out than what they said. Two were particularly poignant since they presented different sides of the same conflict: When the Truck Came is about the training of young boys to be Tutsi soldiers while We’ll Meet Again centres on a young boy growing up in a Hutu stronghold. Both stories are told dispassionately without making a judgement and remind us that every conflict has at least two sides.

I found this a relatively easy book to read, easier than I’d expected, given the theme. The only two stories I didn’t find particularly engaging were the title one, The War Tour and Our Backs to the Fort. These are two pieces about the same pair of relatively unsympathetic characters who either deliberately or unwittingly become ‘war tourists’ in Eastern Europe. They are observers rather than participants in events, raising questions of ethics and morality — and, on reflection, I guess that was the point Lambert was making.

[Tara Griffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a load of badly written, incoherent, appropriated short stories. Not worth reading. I am glad I borrowed it from the library and didn't put any money towards this nonsense.

[Amey Chitre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 4 star rating is perhaps very generous for this collection of short stories. There are some excellent stories in here however (my favourites were Lebensborn, When The Truck Came and Crystal Night). Loved Zoe Lambert’s writing style in general but many of the other stories left quite a bit wanting. Lambert’s attempt to bring together different war experiences from such diverse points of view was an interesting read.

[Susan Wheatcroft · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of shorts stories which I read when I had 10-20 minutes free. Some were good, others ok. Not my usual couple of tea, but gave it a go. Wouldn’t rush to read something similar.

[Deaddad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comma Press again proves itself a reliable introductory guide to high calibre (and new-to-me) short story writers. This first collection from Zoe Lambert travels across Lithuania, Serbia, Germany, Norway, Rwanda and Afghanistan plus looks at stories of UK residents whether displaced immigrant arrivals or backpacking natives abroad. It features stories from different points in the 20th century as well as the beginning of the 21st and includes historical figures of significance as well as 'ordinary' fictional characters. It's focus and unifying principle is war - but particularly the impact of war on people, whether bystander or boy soldier. Although this, and the inclusion of an essay on the difficulty of historical appropriation and European post-colonial treatment of 'the other', sounds overly academic or worthy, it is a vital, rich and thought-provoking collection of human stories even when amidst inhumanity.