The author is the 2015 Nobel Prize laureate in literature.
Without this book, which has long been a world bestseller, it is already impossible to imagine either the history of the Afghan war - an unnecessary and unjust war, or the history of the last years of Soviet power, finally undermined by this war. The grief of the mothers of the "zinc boys" is inescapable, their desire to know the truth about how and why their sons fought and died in Afghanistan is understandable.