sections:
Jaime Salazar, an engineering graduate in his early twenties and working as a trainee sales executive, on impulse signs up for the French Foreign Legion. Legion of the Lost recounts his experiences in the mountain regiment of the Legion - the rigorous training, the harsh discipline, the motley collection of fellow recruits and how, disgusted with the brutality, he escapes.
Out of a sense of honour, he voluntarily returns to serve out his contract but, after experiencing and seeing further brutalities, decides the Legion is not for him and makes another dramatic escape.
Though there have been several Legion memoirs in recent years, Salazar served most recently and as an American and university graduate brings a more thoughtful perspective to this account of modern Legion life.
book reviews
New York Times
"...the improbable, very funny tale of a sensitive, bookish child of Mexican immigrants who walked away from a promising career and, for romantic reasons, threw in his lot with a motley assortment of thugs, drunks, drug abusers and desperate refugees from the far corners of the earth....Mr. Salazar has a sly, sardonic sense of humor and a gift for understatement. Basic training, in his hands, is pure comic gold."
subscribe to agency's newsletter
Andrew Lownie writes a monthly newsletter, which includes details of the Agency's latest news as well as advice for authors. If you would like to receive this free newsletter, please enter your email address in the box below.