Always Faithful
by Thomas Schueman; Zainullah Zaki
Pub Date: August 9, 2022
William Morrow & Company
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
I lead a book club at our library and both men and women participate. I was looking for a book they might both enjoy and ran across this one.
Band of Brothers meets Argo in this dramatic and heartfelt dual memoir of the war in Afghanistan told by two men from opposite worlds. Always Faithful entwines the stories of Marine Major Tom Schueman, and his friend and Afghan interpreter, Zainullah “Zak” Zaki, as they describe their parallel lives, converging paths, and unbreakable bond in the face of overwhelming danger, culminating in Zak and his family’s harrowing escape from Kabul. Great book!
4 stars

In 2010, Tom Schueman served in Afghanistan as a young lieutenant in the Helmand Province. Zainullah Zaki, or “Zak,” was his Afghan interpreter, and together they fought through almost 100 days of constant battle with Taliban forces. This book tells the story of the two men—and the Marines of 3rd battalion, 5th Marines in their seven-month deployment to Sangin. It is an emotional journey because of the bond between the two men, and also because of the many Marines killed or wounded in action during these seven months.

While I’ve read quite a few books about the war in Afghanistan, this is the first one I’ve read that focuses on an Afghan interpreter and his family escaping before the American troops left and the Taliban took over in 2021. What a great read about an embarrassing time in American military and diplomatic history. It brought to the forefront of my mind all the people we failed—and how close we came to failing this one family, as well. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern military history or the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That being said, there is one minor quibble that bothered me as I was reading this. I think the editor (or co-writer, since there seems to be a third writer who helped put the narrative together) should have worked to blend the two men’s stories better. There were a few times I found it repetitive, when I read about something from Zak and then heard the same thing in Tom’s chapter, or vice versa. For example, when Tom connected Zak with John Shattuck, who would navigate his family out of Kabul, Zak discussed it in detail, and then Tom did as well. The same happened with Zak’s attempts to get into the airport—both men discussed these incidents. They should have had one writer focus on these events (probably Zak, since he was experiencing it first-hand) and the other writer could refer to them afterwards. In the end, though, this is a minor thing and I would still highly recommend this book.