Book excerpt: In this powerful anthology, Sebastian Faulks, author of the international bestseller Birdsong, and Jörg Hensgen have put together some of the finest fictional writing about war in the 20th century. Whether reporting with sober clarity or raw despair, the assembled novelists each found a way to transcend the facts of death and metal, tanks and blood. Many of the writers are concerned with battle, but others dwell on moments of calm, love, and friendship. From revolutionary Russia to Republican Spain; from the trenches of the Western Front to the skies over Korea and the jungles of Vietnam, this is a book filled with heroism and horror, savagery and compassion, and lightning-flashes of anarchic humor. From the Trade Paperback edition.