by Kevin Powers
First published 2012
Private Bartle watches over eighteen-year-old Private Murphy as their platoon storms Al Tafar, a contested Iraqi city. The twenty-one-year-old soldier promised their sergeant during basic training that he would keep Murphy safe, but war makes promises nearly impossible to keep. Day after day, the two men face insurgent attacks, crushing exhaustion, and the psychological toll of constant threat. Murphy begins losing his grip on reality as the violence continues. The nightmare of combat blurs the line between survival and sanity. Bartle finds himself making choices he never imagined possible to protect his friend. Back home, mothers and families struggle with their own battles, fighting a war hidden from public view. The story reveals how conflict destroys not just those who fight but everyone connected to them. This is a story about friendship tested by impossible circumstances and the true price of war.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, war, contemporary
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Iraq, Al Tafar
Period: 21st-century
226 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: violence, war