From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers comes a new novel -- at once lyrical and blistering -- about war in modern times, told through the unlikey intersection of the lives of five people in post-9/11 Afghanistan. The unlikely intersection of Marcus, an English doctor whose Afghani wife had been murdered by the Taliban; Lara, a Russian woman probing the fate of her brother who vanished during the Soviet invasion; David, an American former spy; Casa, a young Afghani who hates the West; and James, a rigid Special Forces soldier  (CAS167, $25.00)