Johnny Got His Gun

One sentence synopsis... An antiwar novel following a young American soldier as he wakes up in hospital and slowly realizes he's lost his arms, legs, mouth, nose, sight and hearing.

Read it if you like... as weird a comparison as this is I think if you liked ‘A Little Life' you'd like this. Both are books you'll be yelling out loud about as you read. Just when you think things can't get any worse - they do. Both have main characters who somehow manage to keep their humanity and evoke so much sympathy.

Dream casting... the entire novel is inside the mind of Joe Bonham and apart from the occasional flashback he's ‘a piece of meat that keeps on living'... so not the easiest to cast but I did think someone like Josh Hutcherson fit the bill of flashback-Joe. Though that could just be because Joe worked in a bakery à la Peeta Mellark.