Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
After the Blast cover art

After the Blast

Written by: Garth Callender
Narrated by: Nick Farnell
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.94

Buy Now for $26.94

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

A very Australian story of heroism and healing.

In 2004 Garth Callender, a junior cavalry officer, was deployed to Iraq. He quickly found his feet leading convoys of armoured vehicles through the streets of Baghdad and into the desert beyond.

But one morning his crew was targeted in a roadside bomb attack. Garth became Australia's first serious casualty in the war.

After recovering from his injuries, Garth returned to Iraq in 2006 as second-in-command of the Australian Army's security detachment in Baghdad. He found a city in the grip of a rising insurgency. His unit had to contend with missile attacks, suicide bombers and the death by misadventure of one of their own, Private Jake Kovco.

Determined to prevent the kinds of bomb attacks that left him scarred, Garth volunteered once more in 2009 - to lead a weapons intelligence team in Afghanistan. He was helicoptered to blast zones in the aftermath of attacks and worked to identify the insurgent bomb-makers responsible.

Revealing, moving, funny and full of drama, Garth Callender's story is one of a kind.

©2015 Garth Callender (P)2015 Audible. Ltd

What the critics say

"Garth Callender, a wounded veteran, tells his story of multiple combat tours with acid intensity. Stark, brutal and honest, After the Blast exposes the ghastly business of modern warfare. It is an uncompromising account that will shock some readers. Raw emotions, fears, loves, frustrations and anger are unflinchingly recalled. This book provides a rare insight to the harsh realities of Australia's contemporary conflicts." (Major General John Cantwell, AO, DSC, author of Exit Wounds)
"Garth Callender shows you what soldiers really think - and, more importantly, feel." (James Brown, author of Anzac's Long Shadow)

More from the same

What listeners say about After the Blast

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.