The novel, Triage, by Scott Anderson, chronicles war photojournalist Mark Walsh's experiences as he struggles through the hardships of his occupation and the challenges of daily life. By incorporating themes such as guilt, forgiveness, the nature of modern war, and sense of belonging, Anderson is able to link characters and create complex parallel stories while maintaining an appealing plot. When Mark is hit by an artillery shell in Kurdistan his world is turned upside down. He survives but his best friend Colin does not. Colin’s final wish is to be taken back to New York, but in horrific turn of events, Mark finds himself having to leave Colin for dead to aid his own survival. He is taken to the Harir Cave, where Ahmet Talzani, the doctor at the hospital, practices Triage, where your fate is decided by a system of plastic, colour-coded tags. His system was simple, if you received a red tag then you would be treated, a yellow, and be left alone, but a blue meant death. Talzani knows he has no time to decide wether a person can be cured or not, there are too many injured coming in in the aftermath of war. “Would you believe that sometimes I am so tired, or the cave is so dark, I am not even sure of the colours I give them?â€

He elaborates on three of these horrific events: The first is a job in Beirut, where he takes a photo of a young boy running towards him before he is shot dead. This is where the reader develops the view that he is profiting from other people's pain. But his guilt tears him apart as he thinks how he had let Colin down by not taking him home. " This sense of belonging is also evident in Mark"tms girlfriend Elena Morales who when she returns to her native Spain, she finds herself looking at the many photos of Joaquin"tms, many of herself as a youth and feeling how estranged she had become from her homeland. " He also feels guilty for not telling them but his real problem is because he cannot forgive himself. On closer inspection he realises they have all been brutally shot, and are lying dead around him. It doesn"tmt matter what you do or what you believe, you never escape the homeland. Mark develops the photo, and tries to sell it. The repetition of his survival where others have died makes him feel responsible for their deaths. She regrets her harsh attitude towards Joaquin in relation to his action alleviating the consciences of Franco"tms fascist officers at the end of the Spanish Civil War, as she says, "She felt bad about hurting the old man"tms feelings. This guilt is also present in Elena who, once she finds out how much both Mark and Joaquin have suffered, feels guilty about the way she had treated them. "He begged me to save him, but there was nothing I could do" I"tmm taking you home" I had to let him go. " He suffers from the guilt of the survivor, where he feels guilty about the deaths of innocent bystanders in the chaos of war. "My little tags are for them, because they need to believe there is a system.