An extraordinary debut novel about courage and survival in Afghanistan, written as only a man who has �been there and done that� could tell it. �When you write fiction, your best work may come from what scares you the most,� writes airman Thomas W. Young. �When I first flew to Afghanistan, what scared me the most wasn�t the thought of getting shot down and killed. It was the thought of getting shot down and not killed. . . .� A transport plane carrying an important Taliban detainee for interrogation is shot down in a blizzard over the Hindu Kush. The storm makes rescue impossible, and for two people�navigator Michael Parson and a woman Army interpreter, Sergeant Gold�a battle for survival begins across some of the most forbidding terrain on earth against not only the hazards of nature, but the treacheries of man: the Taliban stalking them; the villagers, whose loyalty is unknown; and a prisoner who would very much like the three of them to be caught. All Parson and Gold have is each other, to stay alive. It is a novel of relentless pace and constant surprise, not only in the turns of its plot but in the strength and fleetness of its prose. Thomas Young is a writer�and this is the beginning of a brilliant career.