PRIME MEMBER EXCLUSIVE | 3 Months Free Trial

Auto-renews at INR 199/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026.
The Watch cover art

The Watch

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER
3 Months Free Trial
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.
1 credit a month to use on any title.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks.
₹199 per month after 3 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.
Download titles to your library and listen offline.

The Watch

Written by: Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Narrated by: Dustin Rubin, George Newbern, Kaleo Griffith, Kris Koscheski, Reha Zamani, Richard Allen, Zadran Wali
Get this deal

₹199 per month after 3 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Buy Now for ₹546.23

'The first great novel of the war in Afghanistan' Wall Street Journal

You’ve had no sleep since the firefight last night.

The morning fog beyond the walls of your base lifts to reveal a lone woman approaching the gate.

She says she has come to claim the body of her brother killed in last night’s attack.

Is she a terrorist? A spy? A lunatic?

Or what she says she is – a grieving sister?

What should you do?

What do you do?



Shortlisted for the Criticos Prize and the Boeke Prize and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the DSC Asian Literature Prize. One of Publishers Weekly's Ten best contemporary war novels.

Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Military Thriller & Suspense War & Military World Literature
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic Reviews

Classical ideas of human dignity and honour are juxtaposed with the squalor of modern war in this important novel... A beautiful and heartfelt lamentation (Eileen Battersby)
His lyrical prose captures superbly the brutal realities of combat (Francesca Angelini)
Scorching, tightly wired... It's a reminder that blood fueds are as old as humanity itself (Claire Alfree)
Written with restrained power (Kate Saunders)
The first great novel of the war in Afghanistan
We watch as the resistance of an isolated American garrison in Afghanistan is ground down, not by force of arms but by the will of a single unarmed woman, holding inflexibly to an idea of what is just and right.
An important book for our times, in which one woman's determination and refusal to consent set an example of courage and honesty.
The Watch is a powerful tale, courageous both in concept and creation: an ancient tale made modern, passed through different narrators in extraordinary shape-shifting prose that makes this not just an important novel, but a remarkable read.
A poignant and important book about one of the defining events of the start of the 21st century; it is devastatingly eloquent and unequivocal about the fact that there is no glory or beauty in war.
A tense, edgy, gripping, important work.
No reviews yet