I was reading the reviews that have come from Amazon's US site, and someone was confused about the novel "The Ties that Bind". This is one of six novels written by Makoto Inoue, with a few choice illustrations by Ms Arakawa herself, and is written very much in mind of the 2003 anime version of the Fullmetal world. It's well written, with very true characterizations of Ed, Al, and Mustang in particular, and is set at a point after episode 27 in that anime, if that helps place it in the timeline. It is not represented in either anime nor any of the omakes or extra stories from the original publications.
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