**From the winner of the Nobel Prize for work that stands as a monument to suffering and courage in our time (Swedish Academy).** Before the United States’ invasion, a million Soviet troops fought a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed 50,000 casualties—and the youth and humanity of many tens of thousands more. The Soviet Union talked about a peacekeeping mission, while the dead were shipped back in zinc-lined coffins. In this new translation, *Zinky Boys* weaves together the candid and affecting testimony of the officers and grunts, doctors and nurses, mothers, sons, and daughters who describe the war and its lasting effects. A masterpiece of reportage (Timothy Snyder, *New York Review of Books* ) emerges of harrowing and unforgettable insight into war.