Author Jeannée Sacken draws upon her experience as an international photojournalist to heighten the reality she creates in Behind the Lens. Annie Hawkins Green is a veteran photojournalist who’s been embedded during wars around the world. While in Afghanistan, she and her military escort are ambushed by the Taliban. In the incident, her escorts are killed, and a young girl dies in Annie’s arm. In the eight years since, she has suppressed her PTSD. When she returns to Afghanistan to teach a photography class to high school girls, and when exposed to the similar conditions, she experiences nightmares and hallucinations. The intensity of her wartime experiences are counterbalanced by the war at home between her ex-husband and his new wife, and Annie’s daughter, Mel.
I could not put this book down. Having spent time in Afghanistan during a stint as an international travel photographer, I can attest to the the accuracy of Sacken’s vivid descriptions of people, places, foods, and the experience of taking photographs. She is sympathetic to the Afghan culture and to the lack of women’s rights there and around the world. Annie herself is a strong female protagonist, one to be reckoned with by those who underestimate her courage, drive, and stamina. The other characters are convincing, multifaceted, and evolve over time, revealing layers that must be peeled away to reveal the truth. I confess I found an unexpected new “book boyfriend” in Behind the Lens—Finn Cerelli—and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance.
Sacken also introduces her readers to landays, a centuries-old Pashtun poetic tradition. Landays are twenty-two syllable couplets generally composed by Pashtun women for their lovers. Since women are not permitted to be literate, the poems are committed to memory. I’ve incorporated erotic haiku into an unpublished novel and was pleased to see Sacken do something similar in Behind the Lens. She also includes a helpful glossary of Dari and Pashto words.
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Behind the Lens (TEN16 Press, 1st edition, February 25, 2021) is available through:
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You can read my review of Double Exposure, the second in this series, here.
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