Gurkha

Better to Die than Live a Coward: My Life in the Gurkhas

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Gurkha

By: Captain Kailash Limbu

Narrated by: Homer Todiwala

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About this listen

In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. He was told to prepare for a 48-hour operation.

In the end he and his men were under siege for 31 days - one of the longest such sieges in the whole of the Afghan campaign. Kailash Limbu recalls the terrifying and exciting details of those 31 days - in which they killed an estimated 100 Taliban fighters - and intersperses them with the story of his own life as a villager from the Himalayas. He grew up in a place without roads or electricity and didn't see a car until he was 15.

Kailash's descriptions of Gurkha training and rituals - including how to use the lethal Kukri knife - are eye-opening and fascinating. They combine with the story of his time in Helmand to create a unique account of one man's life as a Gurkha.

Afghan & Iraq Wars

Military

Military & War

Politicians

Politics & Activism

Inspiring

War

Thought-Provoking

Siege

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Critic reviews

"I was completely bowled over by Kailash's book and read it with a beating heart and dry mouth. I felt as though I was at his side, hearing the shells and bullets, enjoying the jokes and listening in the scary dead of night. The skill with which he has included his childhood and training is immense, always discovered with ease in the narrative: it actually felt as though I was watching, was IN a film with him. It brought me nearer than I have ever been not only to the mind of the universal soldier but to a hill boy of Nepal and a hugely impressive Gurkha. I raced through it and couldn't put it down: it reads like a thriller. If you want to know anything about the Gurkhas, read this book, and be prepared for a thrilling and dangerous trip." (Joanna Lumley)

Most relevant

narrated brilliantly, with lots of emphasis. the story is engaging and easy to listen to.