<p>"They sit in the doors of the Big Mamma Pumas, feet dangling out, all gung ho. Sometimes you have a bad hair day in the big fat sky – come back with holes in you."<br>First nothing happens, on the border between Namibia and Angola, 1983. A platoon of servicemen at a remote outpost kill time smoking, drinking, grating each other's nerves. Eric draws Scope pictures to amuse his mates while he observes everything around him with a distant eye. They are mere boys, lounging in the waiting room to hell. When hell breaks loose all bets are off, and for Eric there is no excaping the horror of the scores he must settle.<br>Written in hardened yet lyrical prose electrified with heart-stopping lines, Eric the Brave is an elegy on boot level that marks the arrival of a remarkable new writer.</p>