Voices: Now or Never – A Dunkirk Story

By Bali Rai

Now or Never: A Dunkirk Story

Eve's review:

I found this book very interesting as I learnt about the Royal Indian Army Service Corps and their role in WW2, which I did not know about before reading. My favourite character was Captain John Ashdown as he put the needs of his unit before his own and was very heroic. It was interesting to see how people of this time period acted differently to now, and it definitely inspired me to learn more about this part of history. The plot was serious and exciting, making the book enjoyable to read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about an unheard aspect of British history.


Jasper's review:

I enjoyed this book because of the huge amounts of description about the terrain, the main characters’ feelings, and their use of language, dialogue and accents.

Indian soldiers came to Europe to fight in World War 2, which is something interesting I didn’t know before reading this book.

I think the book was serious and thought provoking. The main character was always getting shot at, bombed, or shelled. It made me wonder why those soldiers had come all the way from India to fight in Europe, where they could potentially die, for a country that had brutally occupied them for decades.

I would recommend this book for other readers as it is extremely well written.


Safa's review:

Now or Never provided a great amount of detail of life during World War II from a soldier’s perspective. This book taught me a lot about transportation in World War 2, and that the British soldiers refused to bring animal corps to war, and then suffered the consequence during winter, failing to bring the needed supplies to the front line. The book also taught me about the discrimination Indian soldiers faced from British soldiers. I found Mushtaqa particularly interesting as he always was with Fazal, either mocking him or correcting him, displaying that although the soldiers had been through all they had, they still had tried to keep their spirits high. The period the book was a highlight as I had always found past tragedies like the Great War and World War 2 interesting. Although I did not fully enjoy the book, I would recommend to anyone who wants a lot of detail on World War 2. This book taught me a lot of things, like the role of animals in the animal corps, army service corps and the discrimination faced by many Indian soldiers. This shows it is a good book for its historical information.



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