In its first presentation of 2025, St. Albert Readers Festival (STARFest) introduces Benjamin Hertwig, a local author and bookstore owner of Edmonton’s Paper Birch Books.
Hertwig’s debut novel is titled Juiceboxers, a powerful exploration of the lives of four soldiers in Afghanistan and the devastating aftermath of the war.
Based on the author’s experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan, Juiceboxers traces the story of a young man’s journey from basic training to the battlefields of Kandahar and back to Edmonton’s inner city.
As the storyline weaves its way across the world, it questions masculinity and militarism, friendship and white supremacy, loss and trauma and hard-won recovery.
The reader meets 16-year-old Plink attending basic training during the summer. Feeling adrift from his family, he moves in with an older soldier and forges friendships with an odd group of friends from the military.
There is Walsh, who moves in shortly after Plinko; Abdi, a Somali immigrant whose parents welcome the group of young men for dinner, and the unpredictable, gun-loving Kurg who is bold and brash yet magnetic.
As the military prepares to enter Afghanistan after 9/11, Plinko and his friends are unaware their lives are about be altered forever.
Hertwig’s Slow War was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry and received the Poetry Prize at the Alberta Book Awards.
Hertwig’s conversation with CKUA’s Tony King takes place Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at St. Albert’s downtown library. The event is free, however registration is required. To register visit sapl.ca.