Sixteen-year-old Plinko is completing basic training before high school starts again in the fall. Feeling disconnected from his family, he moves in with an older soldier, where he finds an unusual group of military friends: the very tall Walsh, who joins shortly after Plinko; Abdi, whose Somali immigrant parents often invite the group of young men to dinner; and the unpredictable and gun-loving Krug, who is brash and provocative but nonetheless attractive.
After September 11, the military prepares to invade Afghanistan – for war. Plinko and his friends have no idea that the course of their lives will change irrevocably.
Based on the author’s experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan, Juice Boxer sensitively traces the story of a young man’s journey from basic training to the battlefields of Kandahar to downtown Edmonton, weaving together questions of masculinity and militarism, friendship and white supremacy, loss and trauma and hard-fought recovery. (By Freehand Books)
Benjamin Hertwig is a writer, painter and ceramicist and spent some time as a soldier. His book Slow war was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry. He lives in Edmonton and co-owns Paper Birch Books, a used bookstore, with his partner.
