The life, death and memory of Captain Jeff Francis is at the centre of a new book, For Your Tomorrow: The Way of An Unlikely Soldier (Random House, 2011); Killed in Afghanistan by an IED, his aunt, the author Melanie Murray, talks about loss, mourning and service in the book, and in this interview with Joseph Planta.

For Your Tomorrow: The Way of An Unlikely Soldier by Melanie Murray. (Random House, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: For Your Tomorrow

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

An important book out now is For Your Tomorrow: The Way of An Unlikely Soldier. It’s remarkable on two scores. First, it gives us a view onto the men and women in harm’s way in Afghanistan. Some one hundred and forty soldiers have been killed in the conflict there, and this book sheds light on one of the fallen, revealing them to be much more than a statistic. Secondly, it’s wonderfully written. I’m in the midst of reading it now, and have been struck at its eloquence, its clarity and the evocative lyricism that is felt throughout. The author, Melanie Murray joins me now. She is a teacher of literature and composition at Okanagan College in Kelowna, BC. The soldier, Captain Jeff Francis was her nephew. He was a thirty-year old doctoral candidate, who just before September 11th, decided to join the armed forces. He was killed by an improvised explosive device on 04 July 2007 at the age of 36. He came from a comfortable family, and he was a new father, yet he enlisted, and Ms. Murray in this book, attempts to find out why he did. We see Captain Francis as he lived, and in the book we find out what his life and death meant. For Your Tomorrow is published by Random House. The website for more is at www.melaniemurray.ca. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Vancouver this day, Melanie Murray; Good morning, Ms. Murray.

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