Unsolved jigsaw puzzle

Early in Stephen Daisley’s novel about World War II and postwar years, A Better Place, a New Zealand soldier called Roy Mitchell tells a lieutenant they must do something terrible: ‘C’mon boss, we got no choice here.’ This sentiment of compulsion – and this acceptance of the unacceptable – is symptomatic of many of the circumstances Roy endures and of the way he fights, survives, and keeps going across several theatres of war and into the peaceful future he must navigate with his head full of memories.

In 1939, aged nineteen, Roy and his twin brother, Tony, enlist in the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, 22nd Battalion. They fight in Crete, where Tony dies in 1941. Roy, burdened by the guilt of having left Tony behind, fights on in North Africa and mainland Europe. Daisley skilfully captures the camaraderie among the group of Kiwi soldiers: their bawdy humour and relentless banter. At one point, they run in retreat across a minefield, yelling to each other about rugby above the sound of mines exploding and people screaming: ‘Okato might beat Inglewood in the Senior A this year.’